Memoirs of an OC, Outsider Character
by TenshiNoFuu
Summary: A real girl not really fan of One Piece was sent on Grand Line & MarineFord despite herself, thanks to her brother's power. Not knowing anything, she contributed to save Ace, disrupting the original canon storyline. Now stuck in this world, she and her brother must fix the huge PARADOX they've created with everyone's help! * AU Canon Divergence * OC-centric * Multiple Crossovers *
1. Preface

'Cause everything begins: for fun, on impulse, for revenge...

'Cause everything continues: by easiness, on short-notice, for hope...

'Cause everything goes on: by remorse, on a conjuring trick, for endless paradoxes...

Because the original scenario of a mangaka can't be paused for ever...

Because everything that began must come to an end...

...

**A dream, a nightmare, a spatiotemporal manipulation, an endless quest...**

**...**

Why did I make the mistake of provoking my brother?

Why does my life end up linked to the heroes I know nothing about?

Why did I fall on a scaffold in the middle of a war with no clue about what to do?

Why does my heart whisper that no life deserves to end on that plaza?

Why did I wish such a thoughtless thing about a Story I know nothing about?

Why does my mind threaten to crack up under the burden of duty, while I end up roaming on Grand Line with them, with him?

**...**

**Why do I feel like an entire life would not be enough to tell about the time spent there: its adventures, its encounters, its romances, their unavoidable ends...?**

...

Because it's really about me: me, a non-fan of One Piece, abruptly catapulted in a world beyond imagination...

...

**~ Fuu ~**


	2. Authors Note

**~AUTHORS' NOTE~**

_As you've probably seen – or are going to see – in the chapters of this story, we're not huge fans of author's comments… But as some questions and remarks were growing more common, we decided to add one at the beginning of the story, in order to bring some answers._

_Feel free to skip this 'chapter' since nothing indispensable is present here, but in case you would be sending us a review or PM and don't get the expected answer from us, the reason behind it might be listed here._

**All-so-needed Thanks:**

First of all, thanks a lot to all the people who subscribed to this story and enjoy reading it. Your reviews and comments are really a great support and we do appreciate them a lot, especially when struggling to find time to release the new chapters, because it gives us a good hindsight on what you enjoyed, what made you confused, what made you laugh, etc…

Thanks again for your constructive feedback :D

**About the Story:**

This story is the only one that we're going to publish. It will be a really long story (might even reach 100 chapters…) and it will take a while to complete it, but we already decided of its general outline – which will be kept a secret, no use in asking us – and are not planning on adapting the grand lines of it, regardless of what the readers might suggest *shot by readers*. Besides, since we are not planning on taking any other project besides this story, please note that any message you might send to request a story for yourself, special Oneshots, Story Arcs according to your scenario, OC inserts, etc… will be courteously disregarded.

Nonetheless, if you have a suggestion for Song-Fics, Omake and Short-Stories WITHIN this Story, you're always welcome to send it to us. We can't of course include all of them but we'll do our best if the idea strikes us – and credit you for having suggested it, of course :)

**About the Characters & Pairings:**

As any authors, we care about the evolution of our characters, and we think it's only fair for them to act a bit differently in this story than in the One Piece manga or anime, because we believe personalities are built on your background and are evolving depending on meetings: meetings with people, meetings with important events, meetings with yourself… As such, even if we are doing our best – more than our best – to keep every canon character IN character, there might be some changes in the way they interact with each other, and especially OCs and characters they weren't supposed to have met in the original scenario of Oda-Sensei.

Feel free to share your opinion with us on this topic, we really enjoy hearing what readers think about it – PM preferred because it can be a long chat, lol…

About pairings, we made it clear right from the start what will be the pairings present in this story, but we are not planning on focusing the story on romance only, nor planning on making the romance the only red line along the story, simply because life is not like a novel. Sometimes, a lot of time goes by without bringing any new element to a love relationship, while sometimes, a lot happens in a very short amount of time… So we'll just try and write it that way, with its turmoil and not-perfect happenings, just like a real love story in real life – because love does not always follow the rhythm of a Shoujo manga, heehee… *shot by Shoujo-manga fans*

As such, some couple might come together naturally, another one might take a lot of time with multiple obstacles, and another again might just become conscious after some time that they've become a couple without realizing it…

And regarding to pairings, since they're already decided and published for everyone to see, please do not send requests for putting such character with such character, be it in a Oneshot or for the rest of the Story… it will be politely declined.

**About OCs (Fuu and Clow):**

This story is – as the title says – OC centric, so we would recommend people disliking OCs to stop reading now, because we can't do anything for you at that point, lol…

That being said, for the one enjoying stories with OCs as the story-lead, please note that being the story-lead and being the hero is not the same thing. For us, Luffy is and will always be the hero of One Piece, which is why there are only few chapters where he isn't part of the story. Nonetheless, turning the story from another character's point of view will of course bring more focus on this certain character and their surroundings.

In our case, it's Fuu, and she's a self-insert – just like her brother Clow, and their background in the real-world is as authentic as yours or ours – but she is NOT the author (for more information, please check our author's profile here on FFN). As such, she's not the one deciding where the story is going – though she really wishes she could, heehee… We are the ones describing a scene and adapting it depending on her reactions and on who she is, a bit like role-playing, but with an unwanted guinea pig – and that's the funny part of it, lol...

So there is no need to precise that we are NOT planning on changing either the story-lead, nor her personality, since she is the very reason why we enjoy writing this story – reason being she's at the same time out-of-place and wonderfully fitting for One Piece world, somehow ;)

The same goes with Clow, even though he's way less present in the story, so please do NOT send us messages to tell us how you think we should 'improve' our OCs, because we will just discard them. The main reason being that except their Devil Fruits power, every other characteristic of them is based on the real them, like you, like us, a normal person with some qualities and defaults and their own way of adapting a new environment. We confess having a bit exaggerated some of their personality traits to make them more manga-like (because normal people are just plain otherwise and it wouldn't be funny to put them in a world as funny as One Piece *shot by everyone*) but besides that, they're just as coherent and normal as anyone, and we want to stay true to that along the story.

**About the border between OCs and Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu:**

Since some people are prompt to do the amalgam, let's clear up any doubt.

We are not planning on inflicting you a story where the main character is so plain, normal and unoriginal that the story becomes uninteresting, or at least makes no difference if the OC is there or not. Likewise, we are not planning on sending you an OC outstanding enough to make world domination looks like child play for him/her, because it would be equally uninteresting.

BUT, if for you, an OC needs to be described as an ugly, weak, stupid bitch in the first chapter of a story in order not to be labelled as a Mary-Sue, please go back to FFN search engine and look for another story. We mean it, literally.

From our point of view, a Mary-Sue is a miss-match of several not-enough-researched characteristics bringing only discrepancies and clichés in a story. You might disagree, but unfortunately, as long as this will be OUR story, we're sorry to tell you you'll have to put up with OUR conception of things (but you're always free to close the tab and look for something else to do).

But we believe it's equally ridiculous to feel obliged to list a character's weaknesses and bad points as soon as possible in order to avoid the label 'Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu'. Simply because, in real life, when you meet someone, you know NOTHING about this person, nor her background, nor her strengths, nor her weaknesses, nothing! Then, with time, you'll come to know her: what she wants to show first (and everyone tends to show their good points first, in order to be accepted), then what you can observe by yourself on a daily basis, and finally when you're true friends, she might confide some memories or secrets to you. But honestly, do you thing a new transfer student at school would tell you out of the blue that they're really dumb or manipulating? Do you think you can list all the characteristics of the colleague who's sitting across you at the office and working with you for nearly a year? Do you think you can tell for sure what your neighbour is thinking when he's saying 'Hi' to you?

So back to One Piece and our two inserted characters, please do NOT be so eager to say they only have qualities and are already friends with everyone in no time. They're just behaving normally when being a guest on a pirate ship and are trying their best to adapt (which also means trying your best not to get on anybody's bad side… for anyone having a bit of social awareness). And not being enemy with someone doesn't mean you're their best friend either (just to clear up about characters whose feelings are not obvious…). And if you just look back on One Piece original scenario, you'll realize that we do NOT know a lot about the canon characters past, that some of them joined the crew without having explained much to anyone, that some of them are still NOT friends with everyone even though they sail together and talk normally to each other, etc, etc…

Secondly, respecting to our conception of a Mary-Sue and their characteristics – you might have noticed if you're already a reader – we really enjoy making fun of some clichés often present in OC-centred fan-fictions, and have therefore given some Sueish characteristics to Fuu and Clow – with some side-effects – and have developed some clichés scenes – with some unexpected endings – around them, ON PURPOSE. We won't spoil the fun by telling you which ones, but you should find a couple of self-derision remarks or missed cliché scenes along the story ;p Of course, we're not writing a complete parody, so some 'classical' scenes are also present, with their lot of cliché declarations and settings bound by the Laws of Anime (you know, the kind of thing that only happens in manga but which would feel weird if it wasn't to happen that way…)

And since we're the ones who researched and created them (for both types), please do not feel like you're doing us a favour by pointing out at them: we already know! As such, regardless of how many people might be shocked and find it Sueish, we won't bow down in apologies or change it. Which leave us with two options in case you dislike it: either you quit reading, either you feel insulted and write us a Mary-Sue-witch-hunting review or PM. If the first, we feel it's a pity but we respect your opinion; if the second, it means you wrote this review for YOU (for rant, for self-valorisation, for lack of anything else to do, etc…) and not for US (what constructive feedback is supposed to be for… but no feedback is needed when the authors already told you they already know) and therefore your message will be disregarded. And this position is not subject to change!

_Thanks a lot for having read until that point and putting up with us. We sincerely hope you'll enjoy reading this story as much as we enjoy researching and writing it. We'll try our best to update regularly and never leave a month pass by without some new chapters, but we all have some private lives, and patience is a virtue *shot by everyone again*_


	3. Japanese Lexique

_This page is meant as a REFERENCE if there are some Japanese words you do not feel comfortable with in the next chapters. It is not advised to read it as such right now, unless you love to have a dictionary as your bedtime reading..._

_It explains common Japanese interjections, names and particles and most of all give a translation of the characters' attacks (for all the ones which are in not in English, not only the Japanese ones) and will be updated along the story progression when new terms will be added to the story. Feel free to drop a review on this chapter if you think some explanations are not clear enough or if you wish for some specific terms to be explained._

_**N.B./ The reason why we're using Japanese words is because none of us are native English speakers and we do not live in countries diffusing One Piece anime in English. So we only know of names/attacks/titles in Japanese and in our mother tongue, and we're not planning on spending hours searching for the official English translations of all terms, especially when the different American companies can't agree on a common word. Also, we're definitely not the only ones in this situation as many One Piece fans are NOT Anglo-Saxons so we believe it will be a common base for everyone to be back to the original version (i.e. Japanese) so that they can check in their mother tongue afterwards (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Thai, French, Spanish, etc…). If it's still uncommonly annoying for some of you to find foreign words in this Story, you're really welcome to go back to FFN search engine for another Story for you to read.**_

* * *

**oOo**

**JAPANESE LEXIQUE**

**oOo**

* * *

_Aho: _"Idiot" as an insult

_Baka: _"Idiot" as a friendly insult

_Baka-Otouto: _"Stupid Little Brother" since _otouto _means "younger brother"

_Bakayaro: _"Fucking idiot" as an insult

_Bento(s):_ "Packed lunch", usually coming in a box presentation

_Jiji: _"Gramps", familiar diminutive of _Oyaji_ and used to call one's father or grand-father

_Kairoseki/Kairouseki: _"Sea Stone", the material used by Marines and the World Government to deprive Devil Fruit users of their power

_Kakkoii (Chotto Kakkoii): _"Cool-looking" (_chotto _means "a bit")

_Kakkowarui: _"Shameful" literally something that is definitely NOT _kakkoii_

_Kawaii (Chotto Kawaii): _"Cute" (_chotto _means "a bit")

_Kawaikunai: _"So not cute" literally something that is definitely NOT _kawaii_

_Kintama: _literally "nuts of gold" so the precious male genitals

_Komusume:_ "Girly/Little Girl" as a familiar way to call a woman/girl since _musume _means "daughter" and _ko_ means "child"

_Mikan:_ "tangerine", the citrus fruit, also used for the same orange colour

_Neechan/san: _"Big Sister" (casual for –chan and more respectful for –san)

_Niichan/san: _"Big Brother" (casual for –chan and more respectful for –san)

_Ossan: _"Old Man" or "Mister" as a way to call a stranger in a familiar way

_Oyaji: _"Father" as in "Old Man" (very casual)

_Shichibukai: _"War Lord", used as a title for the seven famous and powerful pirates which have been granted immunity by the World Government in exchange of their services

_Tenryubito: _"People from the Heavenly Dragon Clan" literally, "World Nobility" or "Celestial Dragons" in the manga, used as a title for the descendants of the Twenty Kings who established what is now known as the World Government

_Yare Yare: _idiom used the same way as a weary "Oh my…", often accompanied by a resigned sigh

_Yaro: _"Bastard" as a comrade insult between guys

_Yonkou: _"Emperor", used as a title to call the four great pirates who rule in the New World

* * *

**~ NAMES ~**

**...**

_*** **__Suffixes –chan/ –kun : _Often used on people younger or inferior to yourself (the first one for girls and the second for boys), e.g. "Fuu-chan" and "Young Fuu" are somehow similar. When –chan is used for a guy, it's to mock him, a bit like saying "Girly".

_*** **__Suffixe –san: _Often used on people you respect (e.g. "Oyaji-san" for WhiteBeard when called by his 'sons' and subordinates) or people you don't know personally but with who you behave politely (e.g. "Ace-san" for Ace when called by Robin)

_*** **__Suffixe –sama : _Used on people you respect deeply, it can also show a certain difference of rank (e.g. "Aslan-ousama" as "His Highness the King Aslan")

_*** **__Scale of respect in using suffixes in Japan (N.B./ Some people don't respect it on purpose to tease others):_

**Less polite/ **Strange nickname (e.g. "Damned Woman") **/** Full name (e.g. "Nico Robin") **/ **Name (e.g. "Robin") **/ **Name + friendly suffixe (e.g. "Robin_–_chan") **/ **Name + respectful suffixe (e.g. "Robin-san") **/ **Name + veneration suffixe (e.g. "Vivi_–_sama" because she's a princess)** \\\More Polite**

_*** **__Scale of closeness in using suffixes in Japan (N.B./ Some people don't respect it because they don't care about this kind of rules):_

**Distance/ **Strange Nickname (e.g. "Angel Girl") **/ **Full Name Title (e.g. "Captain") **/ **Family Name + respectful suffixe **/** Family Name **/ **Family name + friendly suffixe **/ **First name + respectful suffixe (e.g. "Fuu-san") **/ **First name + friendly suffixe (e.g. "Fuu-chan") **/ **First name (e.g. "Fuu") **/ **Lovers Nicknames (e.g. "Anata" means "Darling" for Japanese women talking to their husbands) **\\\Close**

N.B./Lots of characters in One Piece Universe do not have a family name and among pirate crews, being overly polite is not the common characteristic, as such, people calling each other by their first name doesn't necessarily mean they're close.

_*** **__SANJI's Suffixes –chwan/ –swan: _A way of pronouncing –chan and –san that exacerbate the cuteness of both suffixes. Often used to make the name sound even more lovely.

_*** **__ROBIN's Full Names: Senchou–san/ Kokaishi–san / Cook–san / Ken–san / Isha–san / Nagahana–kun: _Literally, calling people by their titles with a polite suffixe = "Captain", "Navigator", "Cook", "Swordsman", "Doctor" with a respectful suffixe, or by their nickname with a friendly suffixe "Long Nose".

_*** **__Titles:__ Senchou/ Fuku-Senchou/Ou-sama: _Calling people by their title or rank rather than by their name, like in the army or the navy.

* * *

**ATTACKS (Source : One Piece Wikia) ~**

...

_**~ACE~  
**_

_*** **_**Kagerō** (陽炎 Heat Haze): Ace shoots a stream of fire from the palm of his hand. Called "Sun Flare" in the Viz Manga and "Heat Haze" in the FUNimation dub.

_*** **_**Hiken** (火拳 Fire Fist): Ace's signature attack and the source of his nickname "Fire Fist Ace". Ace turns his fist into flames and launches it as a column of fire at his target. Called "Fire Fist" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation dub and "Heat Fist" in the 4Kids dub.

_*** **_**Higan** (火銃 Fire Gun): Pointing the index and middle fingers of both hands at an opponent like guns, Ace turns his fingertips into flames and shoots bullets made of fire at them. Called "Fire Gun" in the Viz Manga.

_*** **_**Enkai** (炎戒 Flame Commandment): Ace amasses a large amount of flames around his body (usually by first swinging his outstretched hand around him, summoning the flames) in preparation for an attack. Prerequisite technique before using "Hibashira". Called "Flame Commandment" in the Viz Manga.

_*** **_**Hibashira** (火柱 Fire Pillar): Used following "Enkai". Ace shoots the collected flames straight upward, destroying a target above him. It can also be fired downwards to clear any enemies that might be below him while he's in mid-air. Called "Fire Pillar" in the Viz Manga.

_*** **_**Hotarubi** (蛍火 Firefly): Ace creates many small, glowing greenish yellow fireballs that float around an enemy. The idea behind this attack's name is that before he attacks with them, the small fireballs look like fireflies in the air. Used in preparation for Hidaruma. Called "Firefly" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation subs.

_*** **_**Hidaruma** (火達磨 Fiery Doll): Used following "Hotarubi". Ace enflames the fireflies-like flames floating around the target(s) all at the same time, burning the ennemy. Called "Fiery Doll" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation subs.

_*** **_**Shinka: Shiranui** (神火 不知火 Sacred Fire: Mysterious Light): Ace hurls long lances made out of fire. The lances have the combined effect of simultaneously burning an opponent while piercing them. Called "St. Elmo's Fire" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation subs.

_*** **_**Jūjika** (十字火 Cross-Fire): Ace puts his index fingers together in a cross shape before launching a cross-shaped column of flame directly at his opponent. This attack's name is a pun since "Juujika" refers to crossfire from weapons, yet Ace is making an actual cross out of fire. Called "Cross Fire" in the Viz Manga.

_*** **_**Dai Enkai: Entei** (大炎戒 炎帝 Great Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor): Ace's ultimate technique. After creating great spiraling flames centered on his location before amassing it at a focused point (i.e. the palm of his hand) with a massive "Entei", Ace then turns it into a gigantic fireball resembling the sun and hurls it at his opponent to try to obliterate them. "Entei" is a homonym with "Enkei" meaning "circle," a reference to the attack's shape. Called "Great Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor" in the Viz Manga and in the FUNimation subs, while the dub version keeps its original name.

_*** **_**Enjōmō** (炎上網 Net of Flames): Ace creates a circle of fire around a selected area, preventing anyone from entering or leaving it. Called "Flame Fence" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation subs.

_*** **_**Kyōkaen** (鏡火炎 Mirroring Flames): Ace releases a wall of fire to block off an attack. Called "Mirror Flame" in the Viz Manga.

...

_**~ZORO~  
**_

_*** **_**Ittōryū Attacks** (One-Sword Technique)**:**

# Ittōryū Iai: Shishi Sonson (一刀流 ｢居合｣ 獅子歌歌): One-Sword-Style Draw-and-Resheath Technique: Lion's Song

# Sanjūroku Pound Hō (三十六煩悩 (ポンド) 鳳): Phoenix of the 36 Earthly Desires (Kanji) | 36 Pound Phoenix/Cannon (Furigana)

# Hiryū Kaen (飛竜火焔): Flying Dragon Blaze

_*** **_**Nitōryū Attacks** (Two-Swords Techniques)**:**

# Taka Nami (鷹波): Hawk Wave

# Sai Kuru (犀回): Circling Rhino

# Nitōryū Iai: Rashōmon (二刀流 ｢居合｣ 羅生門): Two-Sword-Style Draw-and-Resheath Technique: Castle Gate or "Two-Sword Style Castle Gate" in the Viz Manga

# Nanajūni Pound Hō (七十二煩悩 (ポンド) 鳳): Phoenix of the 72 Earthly Desires (Kanji) 72 Pound Phoenix/Cannon (Furigana) Same principle as the 36 Pound Cannon. Called "72 Pound Phoenix" in the Viz Manga, and "72 Caliber Phoenix" in the FUNimation dub.

# Nigiri (弐斬り): Double Slash

# Tōrō (登楼): Climbing a Tower Two or "Tower Climb" in Viz Media and "Tohroh" in the FUNimation dub

# Ōtōrō (応登楼): Reply Climbing a Tower or "Tower Climb Return" in Viz Media and "Ohtohroh" in the FUNimation dub

# Hirameki (閃): Flash

# Samon (砂紋): Sand Drawing or "Ripple" in Viz Media

# Maguma (魔熊): Demon Bear

# Dai Gekken (大撃剣): Great Fencing Sword or "Great Shock Slash" in Viz Media

_*** **_**Santōryū Attacks** (Three-Swords Techniques)**:**

# Oni Giri (鬼斬り, Demon Slash): A three-way simultaneous slashing attack.

# Tora Gari (虎狩り): Tiger Hunt or "Tiger Trap" in Viz Manga (Vol.21) in the 4Kids and FUNimation dubs

# Santōryū Ōgi - Sanzen Sekai (三刀流奥義 三・千・世・界, Three-Sword Style Secret Technique: Three Thousand Worlds): According to the name of this attack, this is the ultimate and strongest technique of the Santōryū. It was first used against Mihawk. Called "Ultimate Three Swords: Three Thousand Worlds" in the 4Kids dub and "Three Swords Style Secret Technique: Three Thousand Worlds" in the FUNimation subs

# Tō Rō Nagashi (刀狼流し): Bloody Flow of the Sword Wolf "Streaming Wolf Swords" in the Viz Manga and 4Kids and FUNimation dubs

# Tatsu Maki (龍巻き, Dragon Twister): This is one of Zoro's most powerful attacks. Called "Dragon Twister" in the Viz Manga and 4Kids dub.

# Yaki Oni Giri (焼鬼斬り, Burning Demon Slash): A variation of the Oni Giri where Zoro's swords are on fire. The main flaw of the technique is that Zoro is also being burnt while using this technique. Called "Flaming Oni Giri" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation dub.

# Ushi Bari (牛針): Bull Horns or "Bull Needles" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation dub, and "Bull Charge" in the 4Kids dub

# Gazami Dori (蟹 (ガザミ) 獲り): Crab Seizeor Crab Grab in the Viz Manga and FUNimation dub

# Hyakuhachi Pound Hō (百八煩悩 (ポンド) 鳳, Phoenix of the 108 Earthly Desires (Kanji), 108 Pound Phoenix/Cannon (Furigana)): Same principle as the thirty six (36) version of the same attack. Called "108 Pound Phoenix" in the Viz Manga, "108 Caliber Phoenix" in the FUNimation dub, and "Triple Sword Soaring Phoenix" in the 4Kids dub.

# Karasuma Gari (鴉魔狩り): Demon Crow Hunt or "Raven Hunt" in the Viz Manga

# Gyūki Yuzume (牛鬼勇爪): Cattle Demon Brave Hoof or "Bull Demon Courageous Talons" in the Viz Manga

# Enbima Yonezu Oni Giri (艶美魔夜不眠鬼斬り): Charm Demon Sleepless Night Demon Slash or "Charming Demon Sleepless Night Oni Giri" in Viz Manga

# Ichi Gorilla (一剛力羅): One Gorilla

# Ni Gorilla (二剛力羅): Two Gorillas

# Nigori-Zake (二剛力 (ゴリ) 斬, Two-Arm Strength Slash): After using both Ichi and Ni Gorilla. Called "Two Gorilla Cut" in Viz Manga.

# Hyō Kin Dama (豹琴玉): Leopard 'Kin' Ball

# Daibutsu Giri (大仏斬り): Great Buddha Cut or "Great Buddha Chop" in Viz Manga.

# Yasha Garasu (夜叉鴉 (やしゃガラス) ): Night Yaksa Crow or "Demonic Raven" in Viz manga

_*** **_**Kyūtōryū Attacks** (Nine-Swords Techniques)**:**

_Kiki Kyūtōryū: Ashura_ (鬼気 九刀流 阿修羅, Demon Spirit Nine Sword Style: Asura): The technique that allows him to use Kyūtōryū. While being relentlessly attacked, Zoro's anger, and frustration manifests itself from a dark aura emanating from himself into a being with six arms and three heads known as an Asura . Called "Deadly Nine Swords Style: Asura" in the FUNimation dub, "Demon Aura Kyutouryuu's Asura" in the FUNimation subs, and "Demon Aura Nine Sword Style: Asura" in the Viz Manga.

# Ashura: Ichibugin (阿修羅弌霧銀): Ashura: One Mist Silver or "Asura: Silver Mist" in Viz Media

# Ashura: Makyūsen (阿修羅魔九閃): Ashura: Demon Nine Flashes or "Asura's Nine Lightning Slashes" in the FUNimation subs

# Ashura: Ugui (阿修羅穿威): Ashura: Drilling Force

...

_**~SANJI~  
**_

_*** **_**Collier** (首肉(コリエ)): Neck or "Collier Coup" in the Viz Manga and "Trachea Turnover" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Collier Shoot** (首肉(コリエ)シュート): Neck Shoot or"Collier Coup" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation dub, and "Trachea Turnover Surprise" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Épaule**(肩肉(エポール)): Shoulder or "Épaule Sprawl" in the Viz Manga and "Clavicle Schnitzel Kick Off" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Épaule Shoot** (肩肉(エポール)シュート): Shoulder Meat Shoot or "Épaul Sprawl" in the Viz Manga, and "Epaule Shoot" in the FUNimation dub

_*** **_**Côtelette** (背肉(コートレット)): Rib or "Côtelette Kabosh" in the Viz Manga

_*** **_**Selle** (鞍下肉(セル)): Lower Back or "Sélle de Ouch" in Viz Manga

_*** **_**Poitrine** (胸肉(ポワトリーヌ)): Breast/Chest or "Poitrine Treader" in the Viz Manga and "Barbequed Rib Buster" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Poitrine Shoot** (胸肉(ポワトリーヌ)ショット): Breast/Chest Shoot or "Poitrine Treader" in the Viz Manga

_*** **_**Gigot** (もも肉(ジゴー): Legs or "Gigot Charlie-le-Horse" in the Viz Manga and "Shish Kebab Back Smash" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Mouton Shot** (羊肉(ムートン)ショット): Sheep Shot or "Mouton Mallet" in the Viz Manga, "Leg o' Wham Drumstick Supreme" in the 4Kids dub, and "Mouton Shoot" in the FUNimation dub

_*** **_**Reception** (受付(レセプション)): Reception or "Open-Face Slamwich" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Anti-Manner Kick Course** (反行儀(アンチマナー)キックコース), Behavior Antithesis Kick Course): Thought to be Sanji's strongest single kick attack, he only uses it when he's really, really mad. Called "Bad Manners Kick Course" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation dub and "Frog-Leg Kick" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Basse Côte** (肩ロース(バース・コート)): Shoulder Roast or "Basses Cote" in the FUNimation dub, "Basses Côte Blast" in the Viz Manga, and "Shoulder Shank Crank" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Longé** (腰肉(ロンジュ)): Loin or "Longe Lasher" in the Viz Manga and "Hip Hip Puree" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Tendron** (後バラ肉(タンドロン)): Collar or "Tendron Tenderizer" in the Viz Manga and "Tenderoin Lash" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Flanchet** (腹肉(フランシェ)): Stomach/Belly

_*** **_**Flanchet Shoot** (腹肉(フランシェ)ショット): Belly Shoot or "Flanchel Flayer" in the Viz Manga and "Gut Stuffer" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Quasi** (上部もも肉(カジ)): Rump or "Quasi Cracker" in the Viz Manga and "Butterloin Breaker" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Queue** (尾肉(クー)): Tail or "Queue Crippler" in the Viz Manga and "Rump Roast Wrecker" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Cuisseau** (もも肉(キュイソー), Kyuisō, Thigh or "Cuisseau Crusher" in the Viz Manga and "Turkey Tenderizer" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Cuisseau Shoot** (もも肉(キュイソー)ショット)): Thigh Shoot or "Cuisseau Crusher" in Viz Manga

_*** **_**Jarret** (すね肉（ジャレ)): Shin or "Jarret Jarrer" in the Viz Manga and "Joint Jim-Jam" in the 4Kids dub

_*** **_**Veau Shot** (仔牛肉（ヴォー）ショット, Veal Shot): Called "Veau Shoot" in the FUNimation dub, "Veau Vengeance" in the Viz Manga, and "Prime Cut Kick Surprise" in the 4Kids dub. Sanji uses to perform this move as a finishing blow after using his combo of Bas Côte, Longé, Tendron, Flanchet, Quasi, Queue, Cuisseau and Jarret.

_*** **_**Concassé** (粗砕（コンカッセ）): Crush or "Concasser" in the FUNimation dub, "Concasser Crush" in the Viz Manga, and "Coconaut Crush" in the 4Kids-dubbed video games

_*** **_**Troisième Haché** (三流挽き肉（トロワジェムアッシ)): Third-Rate Mincemeat or "Troisième Hachisash" in the Viz Manga and "Gyro Jostler" in the 4Kids-dubbed video games

_*** **_**Bouquetiere Shot** (木犀型斬（ブクティエール）ショット)): Mixed Vegetables Shot or "Bouquetiere Beater" in the Viz Manga and "Double-Layer Cake Kick" in the 4Kids-dubbed video games

_*** **_**Slice Shoot** (切肉（スライス）ショット)): Sliced Shoot

_*** **_**Party Table Kick Course** (パーティーテーブルキックコース) or "Rolling Dish" in the 4Kids-dubbed video games.

_*** **_**Brochette** (串焼き（ブロシェット)): Skewer or "Brochette Blow" in the Viz Manga

_*** **_**Collier Frite** (首肉（コリエ）フリット)): Neck with French fries

_*** **_**Frite Assortie** (揚げ物盛り合わせ（フリットアソルティ)): Fried Assortment

_*** **_**Escalope** (薄切り肉のソテー（エスカロップ）): Thin Slices

_*** **_**Epluchage** (皮剥作業（エプリュシャージ)): Peel Skin

_*** **_**Oeil** (目（ウイユ)): Eye

_*** **_**Nez** (鼻（ネ)): Nose

_*** **_**Joue** (頬（ジュー)):Cheek

_*** **_**Joue Shoot** (ほほ肉(ジュー)シュート): Cheek Shoot or "Jou Baste" in the Viz Manga

_*** **_**Bouche** (口（ブーシュ)): Mouth

_*** **_**Dents** (歯（ダン)): Teeth

_*** **_**Menton** (あご（マントン)): Chin

_*** **_**Parage Shot** (整形（パラージュ）ショット)): Cosmetic Surgery Shot or "Plastic Surgery Shot" in the Viz Manga. Final of the Oeil, Nez, Joue, Bouche, Dents, Menton, Parage Shot combo.

_*** **_**Santen Découpage** (三点切分（デクパージュ)): Three Point Cut or "Three-Point Decoupage" in the Viz Manga

_*** **_**Shishinabe Shoot** (猪鍋シュート): Boar Hot Pot Shoot or "Boar Soup Boot" in the Viz Manga

_*** **_**Deuxième Haché** (二流挽き肉（ドゥジェムアッシ)): Second-Rate Mincemeat, or "Deuxiéme Hachishash" in the Viz Manga

_*** **_**Extra Haché** (最上級挽き肉 (エクストラ・アッシ )): Highest-Rate Mincemeat

_*** **_**Jenga Hō** (ジェンガ砲 , Jenga Cannon): Used as a follow-up to Zoro's "Daibutsu Giri", Sanji kicks the pieces of the building at a giant enemy.

_*** **_**Diable Jambe** (悪魔風脚(ディアブルジャンブ), Devil's Leg): In this technique, Sanji spins rapidly, causing his legs to heat up so much that they turn red, heat greatly increasing the power of his kicks.

_*** **_**Flambage Shot** (画竜点睛(フランバージュ)ショット) Flaming Shot): Used when the "Diable Jambe" is activated. In the air (sometimes several feet from the ground), Sanji kicks the side of an opponent's head with his foot (or the middle of their torso) and Diable Jambe's heat greatly increases the power, usually with explosive effect. Called "Franpage Shot" in the FUNimation dub, and "Flambé Shot" in the Viz Manga and FUNimation subs

_*** **_**Venaison Shoot** (野獣肉(ヴネゾン)シュート), Venison Shoot): Sanji, spinning horizontally in the air, kicks the opponent repeatedly in the chest and belly, finishing the attack with a powerful axe kick on the head with the speed, heat and strength of the Diable Jambe mode.

...

_**~LUFFY (the ones not already integrating an English word)~  
**_

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Muchi **(ゴムゴムの鞭, Rubber Rubber Whip)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Tsuchi **(ゴムゴムの槌, Rubber Rubber Mallet) & **Gomu Gomu no Ōzuchi **(ゴムゴムの大槌, _Rubber Rubber Big Mallet_)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Kama **(ゴムゴムの鎌, Rubber Rubber Scythe) & **Gomu Gomu no Ōgama **(ゴムゴムの大鎌, Rubber Rubber Big Scythe)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Yari **(ゴムゴムの槍, Rubber Rubber Lance)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Ono **(ゴムゴムの戦斧, Rubber Rubber Axe)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Fuusen **(ゴムゴムの風船, Rubber Rubber Balloon)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Kane **(ゴムゴムの鐘, Rubber Rubber Bell)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Kazaguruma **(ゴムゴムの風車, Rubber Rubber Windmill)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Tate **(ゴムゴムの盾, Rubber Rubber Shield)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Ami **(ゴムゴムの網, Rubber Rubber Net)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Ikebana **(ゴムゴムの生け花, Rubber Rubber Flower Arrangement)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Hanabi **(ゴムゴムの花火, Rubber Rubber Fireworks)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Kazan **(ゴムゴムの火山 [かざん], Rubber Rubber Volcano)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Ame **(ゴムゴムの雨, Rubber Rubber Rain)

_*** **_**Gomu Gomu no Migawari **(ゴムゴムの身代り, Rubber Rubber Scapegoat)

...


	4. Story I, Dream

_What happens when a girl not especially fond of One Piece criticise this manga in front of her brother, a very devoted author of fan-fictions on the same universe?_

* * *

**Original Happening Date: **Summer 2009, Post Water7 Arc  
**Universe:** Dream-Related Universe**  
Themes: **Adventure, Friendship, Parody  
**Pairings: **LuNa  
**Number of Chapters: **1 **/ Words: **15 200  
**Rating: **T  
**Warnings: **None  
**Credits:** Another version of this story is told under the profile of Clowsama (in French and with a different formatting) | All characters beside the two OCs (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders across the world  
**Guest Star:** Clow, alias Clowsama ( u/1552380/Clowsama)

* * *

**THE DAY AN AUTHOR GOT HIS REVENGE ON HIS SISTER**

**...**

**REALITY**

"Hey, Fuu! Look, I just finished the last chapter of my 'Dragon Warrior' story! So, what do you think about it? Come on… Come on, I will amaze my readers with something that genial!" Clow said to his sister, pinning a laptop on her laps to make her read what was on the screen.

"Hum… The story line is interesting! But you know… One Piece is not really my cup of tea, so…" Fuu answered after proofreading the final draft of the new chapter of her brother's fan-fiction.

"Oh, that's true… Damn, I forgot that my poor sister can barely differentiate the names of the different protagonists… How could she appreciate my hard work?" Clow said with a pitiful expression, "I'm starting to wonder: are we really from the same family?"

"Grr… I perfectly heard what you just whispered! Don't take me so lightly!" Fuu uttered, quite vexed.

"Oh?! Really…?! Then do me the favour of running to the book shelves and read all the adventures of One Piece instead of losing your time on some idiotic Shoujo mangas!" Clow began with an arrogant and proud expression, "One Piece is a classic; it's a myth, a piece of art, an unavoidable reference of the world of mangas! You must…"

"Yes, sure, sure…" Fuu nodded with an uninterested tone.

_As if I would lose my time reading THAT… _she thought while shaking her hand to dust away the remark.

"But… don't you realize that there must be hundreds no, thousands, millions of girls worldwide who would sell their soul to live inside the adventurous world of One Piece?" Clow asked in a rhetoric tone, eyes glittering with worship.

"That's very nice for them…" Fuu commented with a yawn.

"Ah, what a shame…! How can it be that my sister can't understand the greatness of this fantastic manga…" Clow cried, speaking to himself.

"Well… If you haven't anything more interesting to speak about with me, I'm going to bed! You know, it's the 104th time that you're trying to convert me to One Piece universe: honestly, you're more persistent than a peddler…" Fuu sighed, definitely bored by the topic.

"But it's because you don't understand!" Clow shouted, pointing at her with an accusing stance, "How can I stay quiet when you don't understand how deep the characters are and…"

"Oh, enough!" Fuu cut, quite on the nerves now, "That's not my cup of tea and that's all! Why should I feel obliged to follow the adventures of a stupid marshmallow boy, a money-obsessed girl, a stinky playboy chef, a swordsman not even handsome, and a strange micro plush toy?"

Clow couldn't even articulate a riposte, way too shocked by the heartless description of his heroes.

"I like adventure, and I like mangas!" Fuu stated, challenging her brother, "But you will have to give me a fascinating scenario and a cute love story to make me read 50 tomes of it! Well, on that note, good night."

Fuu left the room, slamming the door, leaving her brother still in shock.

"She… she called Luffy a marshmallow boy… and… and Zoro an unattractive swordsman… and… and… Oh, I really can't let this pass me by! Oh no! Muahahahahaha!" Clow added with a sadistic laugh.

And Clow re-opened his notebook and started typing slowly.

* * *

_The call of seagulls… Huh, the sound of the tide… So relaxing! It's so cool to hear that when waking up. Is it a new Zen CD that Mom has bought? And… I can feel the wind, the salty wind of the sea… SEA?!_

Fuu popped her eyes wide open.

She was lying on a grassy wooden floor and all she could see from her position was the immense sky where seagulls were flying.

She jumped to sit back and looked around her. An endless ocean…

_Waaahhh! Is this a joke? What am I doing at sea? No, correction, what am I doing on a boat sailing at sea?_

A small animal then entered Fuu's field of vision: a small reindeer with a blue nose and a huge red hat, carrying a box full of medicine flasks.

_No… Wait a minute… Déjà vu? _Fuu thought with cold sweats running down her spin.

The little reindeer suddenly stopped, having noticed the girl, and stared at Fuu.

Fuu stared back at the reindeer, still lost in her thoughts.

Then the small animal brusquely let his box go, as if he realizing he had forgotten something important, and run away, abandoning his box and its content on the floor.

"Luffy… Everyone… Intruder! An intruder! There is an intruder on the Sunny!" screamed the little reindeer.

_No! Wait! Wait a second… Do NOT tell me that… Kyaaaaa!_

Fuu barely managed to crawl aside, dodging a sword that cut through the wooden floor, right where Fuu was standing mere seconds ago.

"Tsk… A miss..." said a green-haired swordsman with a scary look for his opponent.

"Wh… What are you talking about?!" Fuu shouted, reaching the pinnacle of panic, "Thank God you missed! What's going on with you? Attacking people like that, are you crazy?!"

"Wow! Chopper was right! We have an intruder onboard!" stated a grinning teenage boy wearing a red vest and a straw-hat, when joining the scene.

_Are you kidding me?! Tell me there is something wrong! Tell me I CAN'T possibly be in front of the characters of One Piece?!_

"So, what are you doing here?" Luffy grinned while squatting near the intruder with a genuine curious expression.

"Ah, hum…" Fuu paused, suddenly realising that she had her part of interaction in the whole mess.

_I have NOTHING to do here!_

"I… I am sorry for my presence here, it is a huge mistake, I am leaving immediately!" Fuu answered to Luffy.

And she then fall on her back on the grassy deck, closed her eyes tightly and focused in order to wake up.

_I need to focus… It's a dream! Of course it's a dream – correction: a nightmare – but still part of an oneiric and not real world! Yes, of course, a very realistic dream but still a dream! So I can just wake up! If I just lay down… _Fuu was imagining while doing exactly all the steps her mind was telling her to do in order to go back to sleep, _Close my eyes… and think of going back in my bed, I…_

_Eh? _she thought when she opened her eyes again and was still seeing Luffy staring at her.

_How come I'm still there? Okay, then let's take some more radical measures…_

Fuu started pinching her cheek, pinching harder, punching herself and even laid down on the floor again while turning to the side and the other in order to fall back asleep and escape the awful situation.

_WHY CAN'T I WAKE UP?! I can usually wake up from any bad dream just by wishing it! Come on!_

"Why am I not waking up?" Fuu muttered as if speaking to herself, completely panicked, "Why?"

The rest of the Mugiwara crew has by then arrived, and was cautiously watching the strange show of their uninvited guest hitting her own head and muttering things like waking up, and they seemed really bewildered.

_That's a dream! That must be a dream! I am sure the stupid argument I had with my idiot of a brother provoked it! Wait a minute… My idiot of a brother… Could it be…?_

_NO! No, please tell me it's a misunderstanding! Don't tell me I am here because of him! He couldn't have gone that far just to punish me? Please, please tell me it's an error! Tell me I will wake up soon!_

Fuu was now hiding her head in her arms, in a foetus position on her back, starting to roll on the floor in a distressed attitude.

"Shishishi, she's funny!" Luffy said, who was still squatting down in front of her, laughing out loud.

"Funny or not, she's an intruder. She's suspicious! Even her clothes are weird!" Zoro said with a quick glance for the hazelnut-haired girl on the floor.

"My clothes are NOT weird! That's just some short pants and nightgown I am using as pyjamas! And they are pretty normal from where I come from!" Fuu shouted, reacting instinctively to the criticism, "And besides, you're in no position of criticizing my outfit: what's with this slashed top of yours? You look like you just battled, and it reeks of perspiration!"

TILT. A vein suddenly bopped on Zoro's forehead and he started to unsheathe his sword.

"She's right, Marimo." Sanji laughed, grinning widely at the scene, "You mustn't criticize a lady's outfit! Especially when it's so obvious you have no style!"

"What…?! Do you want to fight, Ero-Cook?" Zoro replied with an evil grin.

"And a bad temper too! But well, whenever you want!" answered Sanji, launching a flying kick.

SHIN. Fuu watched speechlessly, her mouth gaping wide open, as Zoro and Sanji started fighting in mid-air.

_Kyaaaa! What with these two strong-looking fighters who start getting at each other's throat for a mere comment on their fashion style?! Danger, danger, someone, please stop them!_

Fuu shot a desperate glance at the rest of the Mugiwara crew, but felt even more puzzled by their reaction to the fight: some were sighing of weariness, some were cheering and laughing, but no one was apparently planning on stopping them, as if it was normal to see such a fight.

_No way… They REALLY are like that?! Seriously?! It wasn't just an exaggeration of my stupid brother…_

_Hey, wait, it's not the time to think about that! Let's see… the matter at hand…_

"Hum…" Fuu tried when finally speaking up for everyone to hear her, her mind struggling to recover some countenance and behave normally – or rather a bit more normally.

Everyone turned their head to look at their unwanted guest.

"I… I am very sorry for being on your boat without your permission. I… I am Fuu and, hum… I promise to do all I can to leave this ship as soon as possible. Yes, definitely…! I will leave as soon as I can! It's really a misunderstanding. I really didn't want to come here in the first place and cause you all these problems, really… I am really sorry!" Fuu apologized in a polite bow.

Everyone stared at her for a second, and Fuu felt cold sweats running down her spin.

"Luffy, she doesn't look like a bad person…" Chopper finally said, a bit moved by the polite apology.

"It's true she doesn't look like an enemy!" Franky agreed at contemplating the white-pyjama-wearing girl.

"I still think it's weird for her to be there!" Usopp frowned, "It might be dangerous! Luffy, did I tell you I have the disease of never-letting-strangers-board-the-ship-if-not-they-will-backstab-you?"

"Eh?! Really?!" Chopper believed with eyes bulging out of their sockets at such a declaration.

"Hum…" Luffy paused while making a funny expression.

"I don't think she's an enemy either…" Robin said with a soft smile for the unwanted guest, "And she did say she will leave as soon as possible…"

"Hum…" Luffy paused once more with an even funnier expression, before turning towards their guest again to stare at her forcefully.

"Hey, Luffy!" Sanji called– who had apparently finished his fight with Zoro, "I would like not to send back a lady alone at sea, and in case you would be worried, there's enough food on-board for her too without cutting in your share!"

TILT. Luffy's smile had sprung back on his face.

"Okay, great!" he said while patting forcefully the unknown girl's shoulder, "You can stay here until you find a way back, F…"

"Fuu…" she muttered while massaging her shoulder which was starting to hurt from the friendly pat.

"Fuu!" Luffy grinned, quite satisfied to have such an easy name to pronounce.

"Th… thanks…" Fuu smiled, Luffy's contagious grin having reached his interlocutor.

The official invitation made Zoro frown, Usopp rant and Chopper come out from behind Zoro's legs, but the rest of the crew was still a bit perplexed.

"It sounds like the best alternative, indeed…" Robin nodded, "But the important question is: how did she get on the boat? We are already navigating since several days so I can't really see when she could have come on board…"

"That's true! We didn't get close to any island or any other boat recently… Hey, where are you coming from… Fuu?" Nami asked to their unwanted guest, frankly perplexed.

_Where do I… come from? Sob sob…_

"Sob… It's a long story…" Fuu began, brooding and tracing small circles on the floor with her finger, "It's a place… well, a place… quite far away, I guess… and the way I ended up here is complicated too… sob sob… How to put it…? It's all because of my brother, I guess… Where should I start explaining…"

_I can't just tell them I am coming from a different world… What am I supposed to say?_

"Well, I don't care, it's not important!" Luffy interrupted with a large grin, "You can stay on the Sunny until we reach the next island: I am sure you will find a way to go back home then! And everyone is doing like they want, here, so take it easy!"

SHIN. Everyone's stare converged to Luffy, quite dumbfounded by his declaration.

"Oh, Robin!" Luffy called, "Can you show her the girls' cabin?"

"Sure." the archaeologist nodded with one of her usual smiles.

_Luffy…? _Fuu paused while gazing at the straw-hat-wearing captain who had gotten back on his feet to walk away, _He… Is it that he really doesn't care? Or did he notice that I was troubled by explaining my story? It can't be that he wanted to spare me…? But… Well, maybe…_

_Then I guess… he is not the idiot I was imagining him to be…_

"Luffy, are you sure it's okay?" Nami asked, "I mean…"

"Yep!" said Luffy with a charming smile for his navigator, "I don't want to spend so long for something like that. She doesn't look dangerous and there's enough food, so it's okay. And Robin can help out, because I promised to spend this afternoon with you."

Nami smiled, shared between her usual cunning expression and cheeks slightly pink with happiness.

"You'd better be!" she answered while pulling out her tongue, her tone implying her captain wouldn't have gone away with it if he had stood her up to tour the Sunny with their 'guest' instead, no matter if their crew had always been a place welcoming people regardless of where they were coming from.

"Well then!" Luffy said, gently yet strongly grabbing Nami's hand in his to pull her onto him before throwing his other elastic hand in the direction of the look-out.

_E…ELASTIIIIIIIIIIC? _Fuu inwardly panicked at seeing a human body part stretch until the higher part of the mast.

And with a happy grin, Luffy catapulted himself up, Nami in his arms, leaving Fuu and the others behind.

SHIN. A small silence fell on the deck, everyone gazing at their captain and navigator who had 'eloped' together.

"Hum… Are these two…?" Fuu began by pointing at Luffy and Nami who just left, her mind having finally recovered from the shock.

"Lovers…? Yes, if that is your question." Robin answered.

"Really…? They don't really look like a matching couple, though…" Fuu hesitated, with a though for the childish adventure-lover and the cunning money-lover she had heard about from her brother, way different than the usual starring couple of her beloved Shoujo-mangas.

_Well… in the end, it doesn't really work by rules, I guess…! My idiot of a brother may have been kind of right about them…_

"Well, they are not the type to be all lovey-dovey in public." Robin conceded, before adding with a smile: "Even if we all already know about what they feel for each other…"

Fuu looked at everyone agreeing to Robin's explanation, except Sanji who had a resigned annoyed expression on his lips and Zoro who had for long left the deck.

"Well, everyone can go back to what they were doing." the archaeologist said, "I will take care of showing the ship to our guest."

"Ah…" Fuu realised at stumbling back on her feet, shaking her head from side to side to try and put some order in her mind.

Sanji, Usopp, Franky and Chopper left the two girls, and Robin brought Fuu to the different places inside the boat, describing who was doing what within the crew. But Fuu's mind was only partially attentive, the other part boiling at full strength.

_Okay, so let's summarise! One: I am inside the world of One Piece, and it doesn't seem to be a mere dream. Two: I am sure I am in this present mess because of my brother, I must have really vexed him yesterday and he is taking his revenge. Three: when I'm coming back home, I slaughter him. Four: I managed not to get killed right now but nothing is more uncertain in the future. So conclusion: I must find a way back, at all cost!_

Fuu interrupted her train of thoughts to answer Robin who was showing her the bed she could use in the girl's cabin, as well as all the other rooms used on a daily basis on the Thousand Sunny. She needed at least an answer of two from her guest, which Fuu provided most courteously, her awaken nightmare hadn't made her forget her very polite education in the midst of delirium.

_So… going back… How…?_

_Let's see, in all the stories of parallel universe, when the heroine is brought inside the adventure, it's because she has a mission to accomplish, so… No, wait a second! It's my brother I am talking about, there is simply NO way he would make me a heroine. Abandoning me here as sharks food supply seems more probable… Besides, I don't feel any change within me like a super strength or a new super power: I am as weak as in the real world. So I don't think he sent me here to accomplish a mission or whatever, if not he would have given me the power to fight… which means… I am just… a… a spectator?_

Fuu suddenly stopped walking and stared into the empty space, shocked by the conclusion she had just reached.

"Are you okay?" Robin asked, surprised.

"Oh… Y… yes I am fine, sorry to have stayed behind." Fuu answered absentmindedly.

_A spectator? No, you've got to be kidding… Does he really intend to keep me in this world watching the characters of One Piece living all their little adventures – no correction, their fan-fictions?_

_A fan-fiction… of course! It's a fan-fiction so my brother is the master of everything happening here: he's pulling the strings from behind his laptop! I am sure that my arrival here and everything that happened since that moment are part of his scenario!_

…_Or not? After all, I don't feel like I'm manipulated through some insane power: it seems like he can't control my reaction, nor my speech… So… is it really a fan-fiction? Or could it be that the real story has not begun yet? Don't tell me I need to wait for him to make them start their adventure? What a headache!_

At that moment, Robin was showing the outside of the ship to Fuu. And suddenly inspired by her little train of thoughts, Fuu throw herself on her knees on the deck, joining her hands in prayer on the wooden railing, and watched the sky with determination.

"Okay, my dear cute little brother! I definitely, sincerely and honestly regret everything I said yesterday, so bring me back home!" Fuu murmured, looking at the clouds.

SHIN. The wind kept blowing, silently, invariable.

"Okay… Grr, you wished it! Please, great CLOW-SAMA, grant me the permission of coming back home!" Fuu supplicated, desperate enough to go to such extent to get her brother's attention.

SHIN. The wind was blowing the clouds away but the sky didn't seem keen on answering Fuu's prayer.

Robin was patiently waiting for Fuu, but she looked quite puzzled.

Fuu was now trembling of rage, clenching her fists as she stood up again.

_No but… really…? What are expecting from me?! __Bring me back home__! You perfectly know that I don't have my place here! What did you send me here for, in the first place?_

Fuu stared at the sky, tears of frustration building up in her eyes but she refused to let them leave her eyes.

_I even get the impression of hearing you say 'Hohoho, not yet, not yet!'… Are you trying to drive me crazy?! And look at me: speaking at an empty sky, as if I could expect an answer from Buddha! But I am not in the Legend of the Monkey King, sigh… I guess… I'm truly pathetic, huh…_

"Excuse me," Robin interrupted, suddenly serious, "Is this prayer part of the tradition of your people?"

"Huh…? Well, no, not really, probably… It's… well, I was just hoping it would let me go home… Kind of…" Fuu answered, a bit embarrassed by the scene she had just showed to the pirate.

"Really? It looked like something I came across in some study materials, in my research about Poneglyphs…" Robin muttered, bewildered.

"Really…?!" Fuu asked, her eyes shining with hope, "Really? Can I see them? Can I?"

_Thank God, the only smart and sensible person of this crew… I am sure she will be able to help me… Maybe she has some lead about how to send me back home, like a magical ritual or something… although I do not remember One Piece to have magic… hum, nevermind!_

"If you want, follow me." Robin said, leading Fuu to the study.

Once in the study-library, Robin pulled out a scroll from under a pile of books and documents.

Fuu drew nearer to look at the parchment, but her hopes were disappointed when she discovered it was just a representation of a stone tablet with a scene of payer, both sides of the picture covered with strange symbols.

_Well, what could I have expected…? Sigh. That seemed a little too simple too! I don't think there has been enough girls sent into One Piece by their vengeful brothers to deserve a study on the topic in any History book of this world…_

"So, is it in correlation with your traditional culture? Or something related to the history of the people of your island?" Robin asked.

_My culture? I might be good in History but the real world is vast… Not just an island… But I can't really tell them I'm coming from a place with 5 continents… Sigh…_

"Hum, not really... The scene is rather something related to religion…" Fuu answered absentmindedly while looking at the parchment.

_Let's see… what are these weird symbols?_

"I have never seen the symbols on the left side, but the ones on the right are called hieroglyphs: it's a writing system used in the past in a country not too far from mine." Fuu described, pointing vaguely at the scroll.

_It looks like a scene from "The Book of the Dead" from Ancient Egypt. I am surprised to see that in the universe of One Piece… But then again, I think I remember that Robin is an archaeologist, so why not…_

"Then, can it be that you can read these symbols?" Robin insisted, suddenly pressing Fuu.

"Hey…?" Fuu said, surprised by the serious tone of Robin, "N… not entirely, no! It's an extinct language you know, but…"

At seeing Robin's pressing expression, Fuu checked the parchment a second time and pointed at several hieroglyphs.

"I only these ones here and here…" she hesitated while polling her memory really hard, "This one is a symbol indicating that the name inscribed inside it is the name of a king... And this symbol here is used for speaking of scholar, science… And this one might be the curse of an evil god or an enemy… Ah… I don't know these two here, but considering this one is for silence, we might think they're explaining the way the Evil God silenced the scholars…"

Robin's eyes had widened and brightened of excitement, making Fuu's heart tingle a little and momentarily forget about her own troubles.

_Well, it's not like I have something more urgent to do, so… Let's help out with the few I know…_

Robin's enthusiasm motivated Fuu into trying her best with the parchment, even if she kept on pressing Fuu for more elements that Fuu was unfortunately unable to translate most of the time.

_It feels a bit weird to end up reading some hieroglyph in a manga world… But well, after all, I DID want to be an archaeologist when I was a child, so I can't really let a real one down when I can be of help, even if only a little…_

The deciphering of antique language dragged on several hours before Fuu could slowly excuse herself for not having any more knowledge to bring on the topic, leaving Robin enthusiastically writing down all the new translations that these comments have made possible – the Poneglyphs on the left being apparently the mirror translation of the hieroglyphs on the right.

On her own, Fuu went back on the deck and stared at the sky, frustrated to see that no Clow-shaped cloud was floating there to answer her wish of going back home.

She ventured absentmindedly on the superior deck and ended up in front of a little forest. Before she could even wonder how tree could grow on a ship, she heard voices coming from the collection of potted trees: Nami – back from her 'date' with Luffy – and Chopper were actively discussing the fate of these plants.

"Chopper, can't you do anything? These mikan trees are suffering because of the heat, but even when watering them several times a day, it's like if the sun was absorbing the water before the roots could do it… They are in a pitiful state…" Nami said with a sad voice.

"I know you really love these mikan trees, Nami, but I can't do anything against the heat… I'm a doctor, not a horticulture expert!" Chopper said, preoccupied, "If it does not last too long, there shouldn't be any danger for the trees, but…"

"Hum…" Nami muttered with a cheerless smile, "Oh, h… hi, Fuu."

"H… hi!" Fuu answered, a bit embarrassed to have been found out before leaving this part of the deck.

"Here, it's my mikan trees garden. It's my most important place on this boat!" Nami explained with a forced smile, "I even forbid these stupid guys of coming here, just in case they would damage them!"

Nami's smile faltered.

"But in the end… they are still suffering…" she said, softly patting a withered leaf in her hand.

_She really seems to care about these trees… Strange, I thought she was a girl who only cared about money… Still, she is doing her best to keep these plants healthy. I feel bad for having badmouthed her so much…_

Fuu gazed at Nami's saddened expression and felt the bitter taste of guilt and mistake spread slowly in her mouth.

_Ugh… I feel really really bad! I… I need… Okay, what could I do to help?_

"Hum, is there something I can do?" Fuu asked, sincerely moved and readily throwing away her first prejudices in front of such a scene.

"Ah, hum… It's very nice from you but I don't think we can do anything against the heat in general… I even tried with my ClimaTact but it is useless on the long term…" Nami added, her eyes grey with sadness, "The earth is still drying too quickly…"

_Huh… Sounds like… something I have heard in the past… When? When was it? Oh yes, it was when Mom started gardening… I have to remember, how did she manage to avoid the earth of drying too quickly? How?_

Fuu's eyes ended up on Luffy's straw-hat that Nami had hanging on her back after having probably borrowed it from her boyfriend.

_Straw… hat… STRAW…?_

"Did… did you try covering the earth with something to avoid the sunlight to strike directly on it? Like straw or something similar… It should slow down the drying, I think…" Fuu hesitated, wondering how to present the suggestion.

SHIN? Chopper and Nami looked at each other, blinking a couple of time.

_Oups, seems like I was too nosy… They will laugh at me…_

"No, we never tried." Chopper said, nodding softly.

"We can do that! Let's do that! I'm sure it would help! Let's go and look for some straw!" Nami exclaimed with an enthusiastic grin.

"Yes!" Chopper agreed with a smile before dashing to the stairs leading to the main deck.

"O…okay…" Fuu agreed, surprised but following the flow and mentally searching for a place where straw might be found.

And the three of them separated to go and look for some useable straw: Nami where she was putting her stuff for gardening, Chopper in the apothecary, and Fuu at the workshop.

"Excuse-me…" Fuu asked, entering the workshop, "Is someone in?"

_In the end, here I am, looking for some straw to help out a girl I was criticizing only yesterday… I either deserve a couple of slaps or a pat on the head for having reflected on my misconceptions… I don't really know if she's really that obsessed with money, but she honestly seems to care about these mikan trees…_

"EXCUSE ME…" Fuu repeated, more loudly, while walking in the workshop, dodging boxes of metallic parts and weird gadgets.

"… and then, the Great Sogeking…" was telling Usopp but he stopped his story-telling when Fuu entered his field of vision.

"Someone! I am saved!" Franky whispered before raising his voice to ask, "Do you need something? Super Franky is at your disposal!"

And the blue-haired cyborg walked towards the newcomer, quite happy of the interruption.

"Ah, we are looking for some straw… It's for Nami's mikan trees." Fuu answered, a bit intimidated by the tall guy in front of her and endeavouring her best not to notice that he wasn't wearing any pants.

"Some straw? No problem!" Franky declared, rummaging around in a few containers to the precious straw.

"Hum… Thanks!" Fuu said.

_Wow, he is really helpful for a cyborg exhibitionist, I mistook him!_

After a few minutes, Franky had found what they were looking for, and left the room to deliver it to their navigator.

And Fuu was left in the workshop with nothing more to do. She looked around, aimlessly, and her eyes fell on Usopp, who was staring at her with a distrustful expression.

"Don't think you can go past the vigilance of the Great Sogeking!" he said with a self-important air, "Even if you're a dangerous spy, there's nothing you can do against the greatest sniper of all-time!"

"So… soge…?" Fuu paused while tilting her head on the side, quite puzzled by the declaration.

"What…?! You've never heard of the Great Sogeking…?!" Usopp asked, a buff of pride making him suddenly review his list of priorities.

"N… no…" Fuu admitted, scratching her cheek of embarrassment at thinking she barely knew the name of the different Mugiwaras, so any other character was just out of her range of knowledge, "Who is it…?"

_Let's see… I am quite sure my brother mentioned this name before… But who is it again? The Pirate King…? No, I think it was someone like Go… Gold Roger, the same last name as our uncle… Hum… So who is this other King…?_

"Well you see…" Usopp began who had fallen in big-stories mode, his nose getting even longer as usual, "He's the greatest sniper of the Five Blues and… blablabla…"

'_huge monologue about the wonders and virtues of the Great Sogeking'_

"… blablabla… Moreover blablabla, and blablabla… Impressive isn't it?" Usopp uttered, letting finally Fuu speak after a monologue of nearly half an hour.

"Huh… Yes…" Fuu confessed, her head spinning after such a shower of words, "I would really love to be able to do a tenth of what he is able to do…"

_Seriously, even if I consider that half of what he told me is made of lies or exaggerations, this King of Sniper is far better than I would ever dream of becoming! One Piece World is really made of amazing characters… Sob, why did my idiot of a brother send me here without a single fighting technique?_

"Would… would you like to hear more stories about the Great Sogeking?" Usopp articulated with difficulty, moved to find at least an auditor other than Chopper worth telling all of this.

"Sure… why not…" Fuu politely said, while thinking that she had nothing urgent to do anyway, and that it would be better to learn more about the dangerous people of this world if she wanted to have a chance to come back home alive.

_This girl is a good person! _Usopp thought, his eyes shining with pride, and definitely forgetting his first suspicions about her.

"So, there is also the story where Sogeking… blablabla…" Usopp started with big gestures.

The big analogy of Sogeking lasted until the bell of lunch ringed throughout the ship, calling everyone in the kitchen.

Sanji had already put all the dishes on the table when Fuu entered the dining room, and Luffy especially was impatient to see everyone sit so that they could begin eating.

Fuu politely sit down on a chair and kept quiet for the whole of the meal, trying not to gap at the show.

_Wow! That's even more impressive in reality than in a manga! How much can Luffy's mouth stretch to gobble up food? And… kyaaa! What with this elastic hand crossing the table at full speed?! Don't they know it is common manners to ask your neighbour to hand you the dish next to them…?_

After every dish had been dutifully cleaned from its content, everyone went back to their activities, leaving Fuu sitting in the dining room and recover from the dumbfounding feeling of seeing such a quantity of food disappear so quickly and in such a way…

"Hey, Fuu-chan, if you didn't have enough to eat because of these guys, I can cook you something if you want…" Sanji asked, a little worried.

"Ah, hum… No I'm fine, thank you." Fuu said, absent-minded, before realizing it was rude of her not answer correctly, "But thank you really much for asking."

Sanji smiled back at her and resumed piling up the plates in the sink.

"By the way, are you the one who prepare all of this?" Fuu asked at realizing the quantity of food and dirty dishes it represented, "And you also clean everything? All alone?"

"Of course! It's my job!" Sanji answered with a large grin, "Serving delicious food and be sure that meals are moments of conviviality: that's what makes a good chef!"

_Wow… he really takes it to heart! I'm impressed… Hum, somewhat, they're all like that on this ship: a little crazy, but they all have a passion important to them and they are serious about it…_

Fuu gazed at the pile of dirty dishes and at the blond cook cleaning them while humming a singing 'Mellorine, Mellorine'.

_Well… _she thought with a shared expression, _Since I am stuck here, I should try and do my best too! After all, it does not sound like me to be complaining… and it's not their fault if I ended up here… So I should at least try to be a bit useful instead of freeloading here and ranting about it on top of it… Where did my manners disappear? Mom, I'm really sorry, I promise to make up for it!_

"Hum, Sanji…?" Fuu called, her tone a bit hesitant but her resolution silently building up, "Would… would that be okay if I start helping you out in the kitchen? It's the only thing I know how to do on a ship, so… I would like to try and be a bit useful, somehow…"

SHIN. Sanji has paused in his washing of the dishes and blinked a couple of times.

"If… if it's okay with you… Of course, I don't mean to impose…" Fuu mumbled, while averting her yes, starting to blush a bit of shame for having asked a great chef a place in his kitchen, "I can… you know, just help a bit, for cleaning, or…"

But Fuu's offer was interrupted when a couple of floating hearts came fluttering in her direction, and she cautiously raised her eyes back towards her interlocutor.

"Oh, Fuu-chwan… A goddess who deigns visiting my kitchen, I am so honoured!" declared a heart-shaped-eyed Sanji, falling into love-love mode.

And he tried to enthusiastically hug Fuu in a love-love twirl, to the latter's complete panic.

Fuu instinctively grabbed whatever was available nearby to block the blond Casanova.

BAM. The sound of Sanji's head hitting the metal lid of a big pot reverberated in the whole kitchen.

_Sa… safe… _Fuu sighed of relief, _I mustn't forget that he is a sticky playboy despite having some good sides… But I promised to help so we'll have to find a way to get along, I guess…_

"Fuu-chwan, so cold… Hum hum, let's forget about that…" Sanji finally said while recovering his usual countenance, "Sure, you can help… And maybe also for preparing, depending on your skills…"

"Huh…?" Fuu reacted, hope shining in her eyes.

"So, how about you show me your talents? While I am finishing washing the dishes, please prepare what you know the best how to prepare. Based on the result, I will consider you." Sanji announced, with a light of challenge in his eyes.

"What I know the best how to prepare…?" Fuu whispered, "Hum… Okay!"

The afternoon passed by quietly in the kitchen.

Fuu had decided to prepare a huge chocolate cake decorated with marble-like covering, but she had had some trouble adapting to the utensils available on the Sunny, particularly missing the electronic scale and whisk from back home.

Meanwhile Sanji was doing the dishes, looking frequently at this cake and stopping from times to others his chores to ask Fuu what kind of ingredients she was adding or what kind of techniques for marbling she was using.

Of course, the frequent interruptions didn't help the cake to be done quicker, nor did the dishes were washed faster, but after several hours, everything was finished and Fuu presented her work to the cook.

"So…?" she asked, a bit anxious at the idea of having her plain domestic cooking judged by a chef who had served such excellent dishes for everyone at lunch, "It's a Birthday Chocolate Cake!"

_That's the type of cake I am often cooking in the real world for my family or my friends… the only one I know by heart without needing the recipe book, because it's Clow's and Mom's favourite, heehee…_

"Hum…" Sanji paused while considering the cake.

"I… I am sorry if the covering looks a bit weird, but I think the taste should be fine…" Fuu said, before adding with a melancholic smile, "Or course, it's the type of cakes that is more enjoyable when we eat it with several people, but…"

BADABAM. Chopper, Usopp and Luffy just crashed on the floor inside the kitchen, the door having given up under their weight.

SHIN. Fuu blinked a couple of time, dumbfounded, while Sanji heaved a deep sigh, already used to his three nakamas spying on the kitchen.

"Shishishi, sorry…! It's just that it smelled so good!" Luffy said, eyeing the huge cake with sparkling eyes.

"Hey, this time it's Fuu-chan who cooked something, so don't throw yourself on the cake like badly-bred pigs and ask her authorization!" Sanji lectured them.

_So funny: they look like a housewife lecturing a band of spoiled brats… Hihihi…_

"Hihihi!" Fuu laughed, "It's fine, it's fine, if you go and call everyone in, we can share this cake together!"

_In the end, it's not that disagreeable to be on this ship with everyone… it feels like being a guest in a weird but friendly family on a field-trip…_

"OKAY!" replied the three spies, before running out of the kitchen to go and call everyone.

After the cake, the afternoon passed by without any significant event, and Fuu even managed to save some of her food from Luffy's elastic attacks during dinner.

The sun set and everyone went back to their cabins, leaving Sanji and his new helper finishing the dishes.

And when finally leaving the kitchen, Fuu stopped mid-way on the deck.

Leaning on the wooden railing, she looked up to the sky saturated with stars, stars and constellations she couldn't recognize…

_If I fall asleep in this world, will I wake up at home…? Humph… not so easy, I guess… How long am I supposed to stay here…?_

TCHING. TCHING.

_Huh…? …metallic… sounds?_

Curious, Fuu followed the sound of clashing metal and ended up face to face with Zoro, who was training his Santoryu techniques on the upper deck.

_Oops… I should run away before he sees me… I wouldn't like it if he were to take me as a target again…_

But Zoro's eyes met hers, ruining her escape plan and sending cold sweats down Fuu's spin.

"What are you doing here?" Zoro asked, suspicious, while taking his third katana out of his mouth.

"So… sorry, I just heard the sound of your swords and I came to see what it could be…" Fuu answered, torn between embarrassment and fear, "You… you're really impressive! Your attacks are very powerful but still, your movements are really fluid…"

_Nothing to compare with me at fencing or kendo, who is only good at defending… Even my teachers gave up on me, sigh…_

"I don't know who you really are, but I don't trust you! If you are here to spy on my techniques, get lost!" Zoro said, resuming his training with only two swords now, "Also, you're weak: I don't care about the compliment of an amateur!"

TILT. The statement made Fuu quite pissed, even if she knew he was right, and a vein started bopping on her temple.

"Oh, my apologies, great swordsman! Please keep on doing your best on your training!" Fuu icily cheered, turning around to leave.

_What the…?! Really, I might be weak, but I can still make the difference between a good and a bad fighter! And he does not need to act all high and mighty, especially when his attacks are so good but his defence apparently so bad! Grr… I'm sure his teachers would scold him for leaving such openings! Even I can see it! Or is it that he doesn't care about being hurt?! Shounen manga characters are just reckless and stupid!_

"Are you sure? If we discover you are indeed a spy or a traitor, I won't hesitate a second to get rid of you… You sure you want to cheer on your enemy in getting stronger?" Zoro asked with a mighty smile.

SNAP. Fuu's steps had stopped, a small outburst of pride detaining her.

"Oh…?" she tilted, turning around to face Zoro, really on the nerves now, especially about the 'spy' part as she was respecting 'trust' and 'honesty' as some of her most important values.

Fuu moved on slowly towards him, her cheeks all puffed in a sulking expression, and Zoro arched an eyebrow while slowly lowering his garde, a bit perplexed on her intentions.

A couple of steps left between them: five, three… Fuu was still walking towards him.

Two steps left…

And Fuu dived swiftly under the swords of Zoro, before suddenly reappearing nearly pressed against his chest, inside the perimeter of his arms.

Zoro's eyes slowly fell on the one smaller than him but who had managed to enter his vital space.

"Wh…?!" Zoro coughed, stupefied.

"You were taught that as a swordsman, your arms define a perimeter. And you know, within this perimeter, even someone as weak as me can touch you without risk…" Fuu said with a frosty tone, "So if I was an enemy, then…"

Still looking at Zoro right into his eyes, Fuu slowly spread her arm and curl it up around his neck.

Zoro froze.

"BAM… Your loss!" Fuu said with a mixture of sulking anger, pretending to stab Zoro's back neck with her balled-up hand, "If I had been an enemy, that is…"

Zoro's face flushed and he clenched his teeth, inwardly cursing himself for leaving openings apparent enough for someone like that hazelnut-haired girl to touch him.

"Your attacks are truly powerful but your garde leaves much to be desired…" Fuu ranted while escaping Zoro's arms.

_Even if I'm weak, it doesn't mean I like anyone to just throw the critique to my face… _she sulked while leaving the deck, _And if you're a swordsman great enough for my brother to admire you, at least show some concern for your own garde! Even as a manga character, life is not something you have in endless quantity, grr…_

"What the… Th… that girl!" Zoro grumbled once she had left, his face still red, before glancing at his katanas with a new resolve.

Later in the night, after having chat with Nami and Robin about her outfit and what the two pirates could lend her for the next days, Fuu went to bed quietly, but didn't manage to fall asleep.

She stared at the ceiling absent-mindedly, and finally left soundlessly the girls' cabin to go and wander once more on the deck, gazing at the stars being a relief for her melancholic heart.

_I kind of expected it… Impossible to sleep! I really do not feel a bit sleepy… I guess time is not passing at the same speed in this world than in the real one… maybe… Or maybe it's just stress…_

_Well, regardless of the reason, I guess it's better to be at the fresh air than lying awake in my bed…_

"Oy, Fuu!" called a distant voice.

"Huh…?! Who…?" Fuu asked, looking right and left for the person who had called her.

"Shishishi!" laughed the voice.

And suddenly, two arms in stretched gum seized Fuu by her waist and lift her up in the air really fast, before putting her down on the floor of the lookout.

"LUFFY! Do you want to kill me?" Fuu shouted, still in shock, when realising who was the culprit of such an adrenaline-charged trip.

She stumbled back on her fee and looked around: a yellow and red curved floor, a close-by flagpole…

"Hey…? It's the… lookout…? The roof of the lookout?!" Fuu panicked while her knees were failing her, making her crawl nervously on the floor, "Nooo!"

_Don't look around, don't look around… Don't look down either… The floor, the floor! Focus on the tangible floor under you… don't move, don't…_

"Wh… why is it the lookout?!" Fuu sobbed when finally daring to raise her head towards the happy-go-lucky teenage boy who had catapulted her so high on the main mast, "I… I am afraid of heights…"

"Oh, you're a scaredy-cat? Shishishi, I'm sorry!" Luffy said, before considering the piece of information, "Hum, you're afraid because you're a girl?"

"No, I don't think it's correlated!" Fuu answered while swallowing back the feminist part of her who wanted to punch the pirate captain for such a _stupid sexist_ question.

_After all, my stupid brother is also afraid of heights… and I know many other guys who are afraid too._

"But on the other hand," she retorted with a lecturing tone, "A guy shouldn't grab a girl like that to catapult her somewhere! A bit of delicacy, for God's sake!"

"Hum… You think so?" Luffy asked, quite bewildered, while tilting his head on the side at remembering Nami had sometimes punched him hard about a similar topic.

"Of course…! Luffy, you're dating Nami, aren't you? You're supposed to know things like that… I mean, you care about your girlfriend, right?" Fuu said, puzzled by Luffy lack of sensibility.

"I've never catapulted Nami in the lookout!" Luffy answered quite confidently, "Every time, we haul there together!"

SHIN. Fuu blinked a couple of time, completely bewildered.

_Should I rejoice or feel worried? Well, it's true that One Piece is a Shounen manga: I can't really expect him to be romantic and considerate, so a princess-hold-elastic-catapult is not half that bad, but still…_

"Luffy, what do you think that girls like?" Fuu asked with a determined look.

"Why? Is it different from guys…?" Luffy answered, baffled.

"Of course it's different! And what we like from the man we love is also different…" Fuu sighed, a drop of weariness appearing on her temple, "Hum… Luffy… Do you want me to give you some advice to understand girls better?"

Luffy nodded fervently, with a serious look on his face.

_Well, I guess it's time to use all my knowledge in Shoujo love stories to play Doctor Love… Let's put a bit of romance and delicacy in this Shounen manga! Besides, Luffy seems so serious, that's a bit funny so see him like this, suddenly…_

"Okay, so, for a girl, what makes her feel special, it's…" Fuu started with an amused smile.

And Fuu spent the rest of the night giving Shoujo mangas advice in the lookout, Luffy avidly listening to every anecdote, nodding fervently his head and asking tons of questions – to which Fuu was sweat-dropping at least one time out of two.

It was only when his immediate curiosity was satisfied, and with Fuu's promise to continue the lesson the next evening that Luffy accepted to bring Fuu back on the deck, to the utter relief of the latter who was still queasy because of the altitude.

* * *

**GRAND LINE, THOUSAND SUNNY**

Days and nights were succeeding each other, and Fuu slowly got used to the idea that she wasn't going back home anytime soon. Therefore, she was trying her best to get used to the life on board and not get in anyone's way, with a warm smile and an unlimited energy, at least in public…

The largest part of her time was spent in the kitchen, between washing dishes and helping out to bake pastries, thus making Sanji overly rejoiced.

The rest of it was spent on advising Robin on some ancient languages translation, or as an errand girl between the infirmary and the warehouse, helping Chopper carrying boxes and medicine flasks.

Not a day was spent without having to dodge and run away from Zoro's unexpected and undesired attacks, the swordsman officially wanting to improve his garde, and unofficially wanting to take his revenge, while Fuu was bitterly regretting not to have explained him that a one-time lucky hit when his garde was down didn't mean she was at the level of being his sparring partner.

Evenings were usually shared between listening to Usopp fantasizing stories about the Great Sogeking, and telling in turn Shoujo stories to a very attentive Luffy, with the surprise of seeing him try her advice the very next day… and forgetting it the day after.

_Hihihi, my brother is going to kill me if I change Luffy into a Shoujo manga hero, but serves him right! After all, Nami seems happy about it, once the surprise is overcome… The only problem is Sanji: he seems quite heart-broken… I guess a feminist like him doesn't like the have his knight role being taken away, hihihi…_

Days passed by without anything new happening, no island or thrilling adventure on view, no news from the _stupid author_ either, and Fuu was starting to wither, spending more and more hours watching the sky, helpless, and looking more and more often at the calendar with a depressed look…

"Sigh…" Fuu whispered, when leaning on the railing, the afternoon of the ninth day since she had arrived.

At some distance from Fuu, the rest of the crew was looking at her with concerned looks.

"Nami, you don't think Fuu looks sick?" Chopper asked, "I examined her several times and didn't find anything, but… she seems to have no energy."

"Hum… I know what you mean: she seems depressed these days but I don't know why..." Nami answered, puzzled.

"Yeah, it's weird…! She didn't even run away when she saw me today…" Zoro nodded.

"Hum, if even our suuper swordsman is worried, it must be serious…" Franky commented.

"I am NOT worried!" Zoro shouted, before kicking a barrel nearby with a sulking expression.

"Hey, everyone!" Luffy called, running to them, "I found out what to do!"

And everyone rounded up around their captain, who seemed quite enthusiastic.

"Listen!" he said while exposing his plan, "Whispers whispers… So we are going to do that, …whispers whispers… And it needs to be ready for tomorrow!"

"YOSH!" everyone answered, very motivated.

The day after that, mid-morning, Fuu was going to the kitchen to help out Sanji as usual, but met Nami, Luffy and Robin in front of the door.

_Huh? What's happening?_

"Sanji doesn't want me to enter the kitchen?" Fuu mumbled, after Robin had explained her the reason of their presence in front of the door.

"Yeah! I am sure it's to protect the food!" Luffy grinned, "But you must come later to meet up with everyone!".

BONG. Nami just punched her captain on the head, with a resigned expression.

"Oh… I see… Hum, I don't remember eating as much as you do, Luffy…" Fuu answered, forcing a smile, "But… See you all later, I guess…"

Fuu left the corridor and went alone to lean on the railing, like each time she was feeling blue.

_They don't want me in, huh… I guess they are all pissed off with me, by now…_

Fuu glanced back to see the rest of the crew avoiding her eyes and leaving the deck with embarrassed faces.

_I promised them I will do my best to go back home as soon as possible, but it's been more than one week that I am freeloading on this ship, now… This idiot of a brother didn't send me any sign and no adventure on view… I am sure this useless author is lazily taking a break from writing his fics… Meaning that I have no way to know until when I will be stuck here!_

_Sigh… If, at least, I could be useful here… but no, he must have sent me in this world without a single practical power or skill… I don't know, some weapon, some power, something! It's now that inventing a new Devil Fruit would have been useful, stupid brother! Even when you will finally decide to make them start their adventure, I won't be able to do anything for them! Nothing! I will be totally useless whilst they were so nice to me, although they ignore from where I am coming from, although they ignore I criticized them so much in the real world…_

_Sob… that's so frustrating! I was mistaken so much! Sob, sob… I really despise myself, right now, so at least do something: if you're not bringing me back home, at least do something so that I won't be a hassle here! DO SOMETHING, YOU STUPID!_

Fuu heard the steps of someone coming near and quickly dried her tears before facing the person who had come and see her.

"It's lunch time." Robin informed with a neutral tone.

"Okay… Thanks, Robin." Fuu said while forcing her usual smile on her lips, "I'm coming!"

BAM. Zoro landed on the deck at a mere metre from Fuu, after having jumped from the lookout.

"Well, this Ero-Cook can be useful, sometimes…" Zoro said with a slight smile.

_Hum… He's preparing everyone's food every day, you know! He is VERY useful, you mean? On the contrary, I… No no no! I need to stop thinking about it! _Fuu thought, shaking her head from left to right and slapping her both cheeks to chase the melancholy away.

"So, are we going?" asked Robin and Zoro, turning back to call on to Fuu.

"Coming!" she shouted, running after them.

In the kitchen, the silence was heavy.

Everyone was there, which was uncommon since there was always someone on guard duty in the lookout.

_I guess my assumption was correct: they seem to have something to tell me… Must be something like 'Get out of our ship', or 'You're really suspicious, where are you coming from?'… _

_Well… okay, I must calm down! I was kind of expecting it, so I shouldn't feel hurt… I mustn't feel hurt…_

"Fuu, we've got something we all want to tell you! I took some time to get everyone in, but now, we are ready" Luffy said, "Sit down, sit down…"

_Ouch, it's coming… _Fuu thought while taking a seat and breathing deeply to keep countenance.

The Mugiwara crew was now looking at each other with crooked smiles, and suddenly PAN PAN PAN.

"Happy Birthday!" shouted everyone.

SHIN. The confetti from the crackers in their hands fell silently on the floor, under the dumbfounded expression of Fuu.

_Wh… what…?_

"Here!" smiled Robin and Nami, presenting Fuu a small gift box, "We all worked hard on it: it's our birthday present from us all to you!"

"Th… thank you!" Fuu said absentmindedly, still in shock, opening mechanically the box while her mind was rushing to try to find a logical explanation to what was happening.

_What's happening? What the… What the hell is happening? Come on, think, think, think hard! Mayday, Mayday, Houston, we've got a problem! A totally unexpected problem!_

"So…? What do you think?" asked everyone with eyes full of expectations, "What do you think about it? We all did our best to create each a part of it!"

Everyone was now near Fuu, looking at her opening the little gift box.

Sanji was putting a huge raspberry cake on the table, while Franky and Usopp were distributing new crackers to the spectators in the circle.

Everyone was grinning and laughing, except one hazelnut-haired girl who was still unable to determine how to react.

_Waaaaaaahhhhhh! What I am supposed to…?_

But Fuu stopped thinking when she finally opened the present.

GLING. A cute little bracelet of braided leather landed gracefully between her hands. Interwoven in the lacings of leather, five small pendants were sparkling under the light.

Fuu took them one by one between her fingers to admire them, full of apprehension.

_A rune in orichalque, with mysterious yet southing reflects…_

"I am sure you will make good use of it: it's a Poneglyph of protection. It's from Ohara, ma native island." Robin smiled.

_A tiny blossom of tangerine, strangely frozen in time…_

"I helped Nami to create this one! It's no use trying to say it's an amazing process, that kind of compliment doesn't make me happy at all!" Chopper proudly said, with a dancing tone that contradicted what he just said.

"The flower will stay like this forever!" Nami said with a friendly smile.

_A finely crafted bullet, like a chiseled birdcage, with a shining pearl nested in its center…_

"Wonderful, isn't it? This craftsmanship comes from the Great Sogeking, and…" Usopp began, scratching his nose with pride.

"Hum hum…" Franky coughed to interrupt Usopp's monologue, "Let's say it's an association of the skills of Sogeking and Super Franky."

_A small flame-shaped sculpture of black wood, partially lacquered with silvery white gloss…_

"Fuu-chwan, this flame represents the ardent fire of my love! Ah, the pureness of this white gloss that redolent the noble heart of a maiden…" Sanji twirled, his eyes in heart-shape.

"Shut up, Ero-Cook! You're not even able to carve a piece of wood, so don't get cocky!" Zoro cut with a moody tone.

"You… The both of you COOPERATED to make this?" Fuu asked, awestruck.

"Yes, seems crazy, right? To think that these two would agree to work on something together…" Nami giggled.

"A suuper miracle!" Franky nodded, his arms crossed on his chest.

"Well, it was for Fuu, so I am sure they…" Usopp began.

"SHUT UP!" shouted Zoro and Sanji in the same breath.

And Usopp hid behind a chair while the two rivals were now glaring at each other, as usual.

"YOU! Do you want to settle this right now?" groaned the two of them between starting fighting, under the weary look of everyone else.

Fuu made the last pendant shine in the light of the kitchen: a lucky charm, like a Chinese knot, made of straw.

_Straw…? No way, it must come from somewhere else… Luffy values his straw-hat too much to…_

"Rather cool, hum?" Luffy asked with a wide smile, "You said that girls like jewels, and that they like handmade stuff created only for them. So? Our birthday present is great, isn't it?"

_So it wasn't that they hated me, in the end…? What an idiot I am… How could I ever doubt them…?_

Fuu stared at everyone, deeply moved, and tears started building up in her eyes.

"Waah! Why are you crying?" Luffy panicked, "Hey, Sanji, stop fighting and come and help me: I made a girl cry!"

"No… It's not… It's just… I am so happy!" Fuu muttered, her smile drown under her tears, "Just… so happy!"

Everyone sighed of relief and looked at Fuu with caring eyes and friendly smiles.

"Phew!" Luffy sighed of relief, "Well, you know, we are really sorry for having forgotten your birthday, that's why! It was our fault for not noticing, sorry!"

"My… birthday?" Fuu interrupted, stopping her tears and finally remembering the mess from before, "What are you talking about?"

"Well, we didn't know why you were depressing so we hold a meeting, and Sanji said you had a melancholic look on your face when you baked this Birthday Cake, and then, Chopper said that you were staring at the calendar with a pitiful expression each time you walked into the infirmary, and then Luffy told us…" Nami said, "Told us… no… wait… don't tell me…"

"Ye… yes… It's not my…" Fuu answered, deeply embarrassed.

CRASH. Everyone except Luffy and Fuu crashed on the floor.

"LUFFY!" shouted his nakamas, seizing their captain, "What's with this?! What's with this mess?! You told us you knew for sure! You didn't know anything, in reality! You just got cocky!"

"Aah… It's not my fault if I made a mistake…" Luffy protested, sneaking out of the rabble.

"Of course it DOES is YOUR fault, stupid!" shouted the others, showing off their teeth.

"Hi… Hihihi… Hi hi hi hi hi!" Fuu laughed, letting go of all the pressure.

The rabble calmed down under the light laugh of Fuu and everyone stared at each other in disbelief.

"So… Sorry, it's not… it's just…" Fuu explained, trying very hard to stop laughing, "It's just that…"

Fuu stared at the bracelet that she had fastened on her right wrist, and a pure and radiant smile enlightened her face.

"Thank you! Everyone worked so hard… Thank you from the bottom of my heart!" Fuu said, looking tenderly at all the people around her.

All the crew looked at each other, quite embarrassed by such an innocent thanks.

"Well, if it's not for your birthday, let's just say it's your welcome gift… a bit late!" Luffy grinned, "Welcome on the Thousand Sunny! We have a new nakama!"

_Everyone…?_ Fuu though with a gaze for all the rounded-up Mugiwaras who were nodding to their captain's declaration, with mixed cheers but a common smile.

"I… I will do my best!" Fuu answered with a wide smile.

The kitchen stayed silent for a few seconds but everyone could feel the warmth of the smile shared, and the bonds between nakamas which were strengthening.

"… So… Sanji, can we eat now?" Luffy finally interrupted, rising a sulking face to the cook.

CRASH. The rest of the crew had fallen back on the floor.

"Luffy…" muttered the others, world-weary.

"What?" Luffy asked, his mouth already full of food.

"Seriously, Luffy…" Sanji groaned, scratching his head.

"That's our Senchou for us." Robin said.

"He's always like this!" Chopper nodded.

"Humph…" Zoro half-smiled.

"No, but really…" Nami sighed.

"Well, we are used to it!" Usopp said.

"So let's just follow him…" Franky advised, sitting at the table.

"Yep!" Fuu smiled, joining everyone for the meal.

Sanji had really made things in big, and the quantity of dishes on the table was sufficient to occupy Luffy and the others for a moment.

In the middle of the laughs and the flying food, Fuu was gazing at everyone with a faint smile, still touched by their welcome.

"It's really rare to see everyone together for lunch, but it's kind of nice! Thank you again!" Fuu said with a thank you smile for Luffy.

"It'ch becauje today ich speshial!" Luffy explained, between two mouthfuls.

"Generally, it's precisely when people soften their attention that they get attacked and die in terrible ways…" Robin said with her usual dark foretelling.

"Oy oy…" Nami sweat-dropped, before turning with a smile towards Fuu, "But since you arrived, it has never been that calm, you must be our lucky charm!"

"No kidding, it's TOO calm! We'll get rusty if it keeps going on…" Zoro sighed.

"Hey, that bring bad luck what you just…" Usopp began.

BOO...OOO...OOO...OOO...OOO. . .MMM!

The Thousand Sunny started trembling…

Everyone was destabilized and fell on the floor. The table got overthrown and the dishes all smashed on the floor in a rumble of broken plates.

BOM! BOM! The sound of cannons kept resonating outside the kitchen.

"NO!" Luffy shouted, really angry at seeing the waste of food, "I hadn't finished eating! I don't know who's the culprit, but they're going to pay for that!"

And the Mugiwaras dashed out of the kitchen, ready to battle.

Fuu barely had time to see them readying their weapons, before being left alone in the devastated kitchen.

Completely panicked, she stumbled back on her feet and progressed towards the door, paining to stay on her legs as the Sunny was shaken by more explosions nearby.

_Oh, come on! I know I am weak but come on! Hurry up! There must be something I can help them with… I want to help them! So come on, my legs, bring me there…_

Fuu finally reached the corridor running in front of the kitchen and fell, hurting herself on the balcony railing. Clenching onto the railing and fighting hard to keep her balance, she looked under her at the main deck. The Marine had boarded the Thousand Sunny and that Luffy and his crew had since long started their fight against the Marine Commanders.

_Ouch! These ones look like bosses! Eh? Could it be that my idiot of a brother finally started his fic? Oy, stop… Now is not the time to be rejoicing about that! What am I thinking while everyone is in trouble… and in serious trouble, it seems…_

Half-crawling to reach the stairs leading to the deck, Fuu was inwardly trying to get an idea of the situation.

BOO...OOO... . .MMM! Another salvo of cannons shook the Sunny, making Fuu fall in the stairs.

Her nails dug on the railing of the stairs, half-collapsed on the steps, she forced herself not to think about hiding or running away and looked at the different battled raging under her.

Zoro was losing ground against one of these Commandants. Luffy, him, looked like he was winning, but the other fighters seemed to have found adversary at their level: Chopper was on the other side of the deck, changing form to find one easy to fight with, Robin was crouching several Marines at the time, Sanji and Franky had taken a Lieutenant each and were fighting on equal terms, Usopp was snipping from a distance the guns of the Marines on the other ships, and Nami was literally thundering several soldiers with her ClimaTact.

_Yosh, once Luffy has finished with his adversary, he can go and help out the other ones: they should be fine… So, what can I do to help?_

Fuu was looking left and right, looking for something useful to do, picking a random stick or sword nearby before realising that her hands were shaking and that it probably wouldn't be very efficient for her to fight like that.

As she was looking for another way to be useful, she suddenly noticed that the Commandant that was fighting against Luffy – and who had been projected far away from Luffy with a Jet Bazooka – had landed right behind Nami, and was now staring at her viciously as he was getting back on his feet.

"NAMI! BE CAREFUL! BEHIND…" Fuu shouted.

But Nami didn't hear the warning. Fuu didn't hear herself pronounce it either, because a violent hit on her neck had made her unconscious.

_The… the smell of burnt wood… Ouch… What happened?_

Fuu blinked her eyes open and looked around her with a still quivering gaze.

_Where is everyone? Is everyone safe? Ah, ouch… Hey? My hands are tied up?_

Despite her hands tied up in her back by a thin rope, her legs were free, so Fuu pushed herself up in a sitting position and scanned her surroundings.

Chopper and Robin were lying unconscious at a few meters from her, Kairoseki handcuffs around their wrists. Usopp was also tied up a bit farther, while Franky and Sanji were in the same position at the other end of the deck, but immobilized by heavy chains.

_No way?! Everyone was captured? Wh… when? What happened…?! And what's up with these heavy chains?! Humph, I guess even the enemy does not believe me dangerous enough to deserve something more solid than a thin rope…_

Fuu tried to shake off her arms but the rope was only sizzling deeper in her wrists.

_Well, I unfortunately have to give them reason: that's more than enough to hinder the weak me, sigh... Hey? What about Luffy? And Zoro, and Nami?_

Fuu was now searching desperately the deck, looking for the three nakamas… And then, she saw them!

Zoro had one knee on the floor, panting heavily, his head and his chest bleeding, completely defenseless, while the Marine Commander was looking down on him, juggling with Zoro's three katanas. But what was the most terrifying was to see Luffy, the body covered by bruises, circled by three Lieutenants, watching helplessly as the main Commander was pressing his sword near Nami's throat, using her as a shield and hostage, her ClimaTact on the floor several meters away…

_That's dirty!_

"Mugiwara's crew captured!" That was the title that everyone will be able to read tomorrow in the newspapers! There was no breathing space for our heroes, trapped by the unfair tactics of the two Marine Commanders: their best fighters were hindered by heavy chains; toyed around and on the brink of collapsing; or beaten up without any riposte possible by fear of seeing the person they loved hurt… Could it be the end?

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

_Hey! That sounded like the end of a chapter, that… Don't tell me… Don't tell me my idiot of a brother has gone to bed, letting the story unfinished? HEY! You've got to be kidding me!_

Fuu had lifted her head up and was staring at the sky, powerlessly but quite angry.

_Hey, you can't just stop writing now! Your chapter might be finished but the story is not paused here… Seriously!_

Fuu was watching with a dark look at the Marines going on and forth on the deck, inspecting the ship. The Commander was still looking down on Zoro, and Luffy was still getting beat up by the three Lieutenants around him, clenching his fists and teeth, looking helplessly at Nami, who was crying and screaming his name, trying to break free from the other Commander's catch, but her arm was already on the verge of breaking.

_Why isn't the story in pause…? Wh… why? How come it doesn't happen like in a manga or anime… WHY?!_

Wind flew on the Thousand Sunny deck, bringing the smell of burning to Fuu's nose and a bitter taste to her mouth.

_Could it be… could it be that my presence here forbids it? Can it be that a real person's time can't be put in pause? Is that it? Is it that their story is messed up because of ME? They're enduring all of this until the 'next chapter' because of me…?_

"Wh…what can I do… It's my fault… What can I…?" Fuu started to cry, trembling of frustration and not even realizing she was speaking out loud.

Two Marines passed nearby without a single look for her.

_Humph! Well, I know I am not dangerous but still…_

_Ah, seems like I calmed down a bit… Damn it! This dirty coward taking Nami in hostage, I really want to do something but what? Think, think hard! Think about something, stupid me! What can I do… Something that would help them: something useful like a distraction, or getting back their weapon, I don't know… Something…_

_Hum, I wonder if I can die in this world… Hey, that's not the time to think about that! Well, first, getting rid of this rope. After all, it's their fault for not watching me!_

Fuu rolled on her back, passing her feet inside the loop of her arms, and she started chewing hard the rope around her wrists to untie it. And indeed, not a single Marine seemed to care about her little acrobatic.

"Gnnn… That's way more difficult to cut than in mangas… Gnnn!" Fuu muttered to herself, still chewing the rope.

_Seriously, what is my brother doing at such a critical time? Normally, in mangas, that's the kind of timing where a hero appears, beats up the bad guys with wonderful techniques, protects the damsel in distress, says one or two sentences really really cool, and saves the day! Really, what is he doing?_

One of the Lieutenants who were beating up Luffy then came to speak to the Commander that was holding Nami hostage.

"What are we supposed to do, boss? He refuses to collapse but he's not fighting back… It's really difficult to believe that he's the infamous Mugiwara no Luffy…" reported the Lieutenant.

"Humph! You just have to take his navigator in hostage and he's not worth anything anymore! In the end, he's just a brat with an elastic body and no guts!" despised the Commander.

_TILT!_

"And this girl doesn't even fight back! She only knows how to move her magic wand, I wonder how she managed to get a bounty on her head!" laughed the Commander.

_TILT!_

"Humph… This crew is infamous but it's just a bunch of good-for-nothing. There are two girls we didn't have much trouble to make faint, a strange plush-toy completely useless and a guy who is awfully weak at close quarters combat…" enumerated the Commander with a quick glance for the prisoners.

_TILT…TILT…TILT !_

"This stupid guy was so worried about the 'damsels' that we had no trouble to overcome him, and the scrap-heap guy followed quickly… Then we just have to focus everyone on Roronoa by attacking him in his back… He doesn't deserve to be called a warrior, being that weak…" laughed the Commander with a victorious expression, "Well, in any case, with such a lousy captain, of course the rest of the crew is pathetic! It's really going to be an easy promotion for all of us!"

_TILT…TILT…TILT …TILT…TILT !_

The silence abruptly fell on the deck on the Thousand Sunny, like a thumping strike, as if a frosty air mass was spreading on the floor…

Everyone, Marines and pirates, were worryingly looking around, searching for the reason of this sudden changing of atmosphere and…

"Boss…" muttered the Lieutenant, turning back, "Th… the girl…"

Commonly speaking, the girl – Fuu – had cracked up, meaning the fuse of anger had broken lose…

Her hands still tied up in front of her, she was now standing up, her eyes pitch dark, her fury tangible in the air around her, and she was walking, slowly but certainly, in direction of the Commander.

"Wh… what is she doing?" muttered the Commander, dumbfounded.

Fuu was still going forward, at slow steps, as if they were charged with murderous intents.

The rest of the Marines, Zoro, Luffy, Sanji, Franky… all were staring at Fuu, their eyes full of apprehension. Still in silence, her eyes shining with a rage directed towards the Marine, Fuu was now sufficiently close from the Commander and the Marine for them to feel the frosty air that surrounded her, like an aura of hatred extremely dense.

Even Nami, who perfectly knew that Fuu didn't have any fighting power, couldn't help shivering as shw was seeing her come closer.

Fuu looked up and her eyes met the ones of the Commander, who instinctively froze.

_Imp… Impossible… It's the same girl as before… It's the same… the one who couldn't even dodge one knife-hand strike and fainted… She… she doesn't even have a bounty on her head… Wh… what does… what can she… She… can't… _ the Commander thought, cold sweats running down his chin.

Her eyes dark of anger still pinned on the Commander, Fuu slowly raised her hands above her head. The Marine, stupefied, couldn't even dodge the two hands that fell on his sword – which was still placed in front of Nami's throat.

The edge of his blade, sharp like a razor, cut off the rope hindering Fuu's hands, splashing around the blood from where she scratched herself.

"Wh…" gasped the Commandant, paralyzed by the surprise.

Loosening unconsciously his grip on Nami, the reaction of the Marine was too slow by a few seconds…

Second one: Fuu seized his sword full-handily, ripping him off of his weapon, and sending it flying on the floor at Zoro's feet.

Second two: her eyes still pinned on the Commandant as a dark and hateful spell, Fuu seized Nami by her wrist and pushed her towards the ClimaTact while she was snatching the keychain from the belt of the Commander.

Second three: the ClimaTact, hold by Nami, sent the soldiers guarding her nakamas flying backwards with some Thunder Balls, while Fuu was running towards them to free everyone from their chains and handcuffs.

In these three seconds, no one had yet awakened from their stupor, be it on the Marine or the pirate side, when suddenly…

"LUFFY! What are you waiting for? Show them what they reap for having taken in hostage your navigator! ZORO! If you're a swordsman, you pick up this blade and show to this naughty bastard what is a real swordsman made of! SANJI! Women hate weaklings so what are waiting for proving yourself to us!" Fuu shouted in an uncommonly loud and angry tone.

In one instant, as if pushing the switch on, the paralyzing spell broke, and the fights busted out!

The Commander, now awake and in a mad rage, had pulled out a second sword and was walking towards Fuu and her friends with a deathly glare.

_Ugh… It's going to be rough on me… I hope I can't die in this world… though it's probably going to hurt…_

"Mirage Tempo!" Nami shouted, creating several Fuus in deformed shapes around her nakama and confusing the Marine Commander.

"Nami!" Fuu exclaimed with relief while turning back to smile at her.

"Hey… No way I'm letting this bastard get back at you! And I can't just let you win all the merit of this fight…" Nami smiled, before adding, "Besides, it's not like you can defend yourself alone, right?"

_That's a polite way of saying I am weak and useless, right?_ Fuu sighed with a depressed expression.

Distracted by the mirages, the Commander hadn't seen Luffy charging him with eyes full of anger but soon faced all his anger.

Respecting to the Lieutenants, they were so surprised by the twist of the situation that they hadn't see Robin and Chopper awaking when Fuu had shouted, and only came to realise when Robin caged them under an army of arms, before Chopper could feed them with special-made soporific pills of his invention that made them collapse in less than two seconds.

Meanwhile, Usopp and Franky were literally clearing the way out of the basic Marines soldiers. And Sanji, as surprising as it may seem, was working together with Zoro to give his pay back to the Commander who had been despising him some minutes ago.

_Wow… As expected from everyone: their fighting techniques are really impressive! Looks like it won't be long before the battle ends…_

Indeed, in less than twenty minutes, the battle ended up with the Mugiwaras' victory, the deck of the Thousand Sunny was cleaned of every Marine trace, their ship had been sent to the depths of Grand Line and the escapees were swimming away with scared faces.

Chopper was now running around the team to heal everyone.

"Nami! Are you okay?" Luffy asked while carefully holding Nami by her shoulders, examining her from every angle to see if she wasn't hurt.

"I am fine! Just a bit frustrated for not having destroyed this bastard myself…" Nami answered, clenching her fist.

"So, Marimo… You fight at your best only when a young lady asks you to?" Sanji mocked while lighting on his cigarette.

"At least, I'm not part of the weaklings who got chained up…" Zoro mocked back on a challenging tone.

Electricity was charging the air, and everyone would have preferred to avoid an umpteenth fight between Zoro and Sanji, at least for now…

"Hum… I sincerely apologize for having said all these mean things to you…" Fuu began, feeling guilty about having put oil on the fire with her previous comment, "I am REALLY sorry, so could you just, for this ONE time, not fight? Please…?"

SHIN. Zoro and Sanji immediately stopped their fight, as if they had realized something important, and simultaneously turned their head to stare at Fuu.

"Now that you remind me of it…" said the two of them, drawing close to Fuu's face.

"Wh… what?" Fuu asked, stepping back a bit and feeling uneasy.

"That's true, Fuu, during the fight…" exposed everyone with a strange look on their face, while slowly gathering around her.

_Waaah! Wh… what do they want… Scary… Scary, SCARY!_

"I'm sorry! I couldn't help at all and even ranted at you, I really reflect onto it…" Fuu implored, raising her arms in front of her, as if trying to protect herself from everyone's stare, "It's just… sorry, I don't have any fighting technique, or anything, I'm really sorry… Sorry for being such a useless spectator…"

SHIN. Fuu's comment got welcomed by silence.

_Huh? Nothing is coming? Why…_

Fuu prudently lowered her arms, and gazed at everyone.

The Mugiwaras were all – with varying intensity but the same intent – smiling widely at her.

"What are you talking about?" Nami laughed, gently placing her hand on Fuu's arms, "You were really great!"

"Yeah, nearly as wonderful as the Great Sogeking!" Usopp added, patting Fuu's shoulder with a proud air.

"And that's supposed to be a compliment?!" Franky laughed, ruffling Fuu's hair under his large hand, "Seriously, you were suuper! Super enough to make me shiver…"

"Humph… For a non-swordsman, your fighting spirit wasn't that bad!" Zoro said, close enough to Fuu to brush his shoulder against hers, but looking elsewhere with a slight blush.

"Hey, Seaweed-Head, I remind you she was the one to give you a sword…" Sanji sneered, before twirling around Fuu with heart-shaped eyes, "I personally found you breathtaking, Fuu-chwan!"

"Oh, and I remind YOU that she is the one who freed you from your chains, weakling!" Zoro riposted, a vein bopping furiously on his forehead, "And women hate weaklings!"

"I think we really need to settle this, Marimo!" Sanji groaned, before sending a flying kick that launched the fight between him and Zoro.

"Let these two fight… It's already rare enough for them to cooperate in a fight that they would need to reaffirm their rivalry afterwards…" Robin said, "I don't really know what you did, Fuu, but when I was unconscious, your voice reached me, thank you!"

"Yes, yes… What did you do when we were unconscious? It seems fantastic…" Chopper asked with sparkling eyes.

"Oh, if you could have seen that, Chopper…" Luffy said, very enthusiastic but with some selective memory, "She stood up, saved Nami, no wait, before she glared at that bastard, and then she saved Nami, no, no there is the moment when she ripped him off of his sword to save Nami… Well, in the end, that was very scary!"

_What is this idiot talking about? When he is furious, Luffy is far more scary… _thought the rest of the crew.

"Ah, hum… It's not really… I just cracked up… a little!" Fuu whispered, deeply embarrassed.

"What?!" Chopper exclaimed, "Did you got hit on your head? I need to examine you… I hope it's not too serious…"

"Oh, no… Don't worry, Chopper. That was because of what he said about you and…" Fuu began before realizing the embarrassing confession she was making and stopping her sentence in a deep blush.

"Huh… something he said?" Luffy asked, confused.

"Oh, what he said, huh…" remembered the others, grinning at Fuu.

"Hum…" Fuu blushed, extremely embarrassed.

"Hum, bah… Doesn't matter!" Luffy concluded, who didn't like to be puzzled for too long, "Oh, we need to finish what we began before the fight!"

_Before the fight?_

"Fuu, welcome as one of our nakamas!" Luffy said, holding out his hand to Fuu with a serious yet smiling expression.

"Welcome to our new nakama!" repeated le rest of the crew, in a smile, piling their hands under the one of their captain.

Deeply moved, Fuu gazed at all these hands and all these smiles, all these people who were calling her their nakama.

_If it's them… I guess it's not that bad to stay here a bit longer…_

_I guess I can keep on doing my best in this world before going back… because it's them! Hihihi… Who would have thought I would call them nakamas when I criticized them so harshly and so unfairly in the real world…_

_Well, it's true that at that time, I had exaggerated my critique only to shut the mouth of my brother but… Oh my! How am I going to hide to this idiot of a brother that he was right? They really deserve far better than all I had said about them… They deserve to be followed to the ends of Earth!_

Fuu hold out her hand, a radiant smile on her face.

"Please take care of me from now on!" she said while putting her hand on the circle of hands of her new nakamas.

FLASH. At the very moment Fuu's hand touched everyone's, a huge and bright flash happened.

"Hey, what was that?" asked everyone, surprised.

Fuu fell on her knees, her eyelids so heavy that she couldn't keep them open anymore.

"I guess… It's time… for me to go back home…" Fuu explained in a whisper.

"Hey, are you okay? What's happening?" Luffy shouted, panicking.

"It's fine… Don't worry…" Fuu smiled, already half asleep, "Thanks… again… and… let's meet… again!"

Fuu fell definitely asleep on the deck, hold by everyone and, in a thin cloud of stardust, she disappeared!

* * *

**REALITY**

_The… chirping of doves… The smell of pancakes… Ah, I need to go and help Sanji preparing breakfast… WHAT?!_

Fuu suddenly jumped awake, and looked around her.

A bedroom with pale walls, the sunlight percolating through the shutters, a large bed with blue sheets…

_I am back… I am back…?! I am back in the real world!_

Fuu jumped out of her bed and run down the stairs.

She entered the dining room, looking with delight to the wooden kitchen with walls colour of sunflowers, at her mother cooking pancakes, at her father grinding coffee, at her little brother sulking because he needed to take his breakfast on the table and not in front of the computer…

_How could I have forgotten what a happiness it is to have this scene every morning during holidays…!_

"Good morning!" Fuu grinned, full of energy.

"Good morning/Morning…" answered her nearly-complete family.

"Huh… And Clow?" Fuu asked, looking for her other brother.

"Behind you…" said a masculine voice.

Fuu turned back to look at her brother, who was crooking a smile.

"Did you sleep well? Had nice dreams?" Clow asked, mocking his sister in quite an obvious way.

_He knows! He definitely knows! Everything is HIS fault: I am going to slaughter him!_

_Well… Sigh… I suppose I can't kill him since I had fun, in the end… I am really going to miss them! My… nakamas…_

"So, do you wish to resume yesterday's conversation?" Clow offered with a triumphant smile at seeing that his sister was not talking back to him.

"For what purpose?" Fuu riposted, smiling back.

"Well, I guess… You've changed your opinion." Clow said, starting to doubt his own success.

"Oh, respecting to what?" Fuu asked innocently.

_I'd rather die than tell you that you were right… At least for today, sigh… because I will need to do justice to Luffy and the others afterwards…_

"You…" Clow began, while thinking: _Impossible, she's bluffing, she must be bluffing… The scenario was done so that she can't come back until she changed her mind on Luffy and the rest of the Mugiwaras. She shouldn't have been able to come back unless she truly desired to approve of them and follow their adventures… And she's back! So…_

Clow was staring at his sister happily eating pancakes.

_So… _Clow thought, some cold sweat running down his neck.

"Is there something bothering you, Bro?" Fuu asked with a sparkling smile.

"No, nothing…" Clow muttered back, thinking: _Argh… Impossible to ask her directly! But you're not going to get away like this, grr…_

_Victory! _Fuu thought, staring at the puzzled face of her brother.

"Oh, I forgot my slippers, I'm coming back!" Fuu suddenly realized, rushing back to her room.

GLING. A small leather bracelet tingled on Fuu's wrist as she run up the stairs.

_The bracelet: I kept it! Thanks God…_

Fuu gently caressed the lacings of leather, a melancholic smile enlightening her lips.

_Hum… I hope they are doing well, my precious… nakamas… No, if it's them, I am sure they are okay, as usual!_

* * *

**GRAND LINE, THOUSAND SUNNY**

"Hey Sanji! Give me something to eat, I'm starving!" Luffy shouted, entering the kitchen.

Sanji jumped and pressed too strongly the pastry bag he was holding, sending a splash of cream on the wall.

"Luffy! Don't startle me! I was doing the decorations of the cake!" Sanji reprimanded.

"Waah, it's pretty rare to see you baking cakes? Is it a special recipe?" Luffy asked, his hands slowly advancing towards the plate on which the cake was standing.

"Yep!" Sanji chuckled, "It's a recipe F.. likes a lot… Huh? F…? Who was it again…" Sanji wondered, puzzled.

"Thanks for the cake!" Luffy said, stealing the cake before running out of the kitchen.

"Argh?! The cake…!" Sanji exclaimed, looking powerlessly at the empty place where the cake should have been.

_Shishishi, I will bring some to Nami, since girls like sweet things! _thought Luffy, _I really need to thank F.. for telling me all of these things…_

"Huh? What was I just thinking about?" Luffy muttered confused.

A bit farther, Nami was watering the mikan trees with a joyful smile.

"Hey Chopper, come and see! The mikan trees are doing way better!" she said.

"Yes, it's thanks to this trick with the straw that F.. explained us… Huh? Who was it?" Chopper answered, suddenly baffled.

"Oh, come on, of course it was F.. Huh? F.. It was… I can't remember…" Nami noticed, puzzled.

_Who was it again?_ thought Chopper and Nami, looking bewildered at the straw protecting the earth around the mikan trees trunks.

Meanwhile, in the study, Robin was working on her books and parchments.

_At least some free time to decipher these ancient texts… Since F.. explained me the meaning of some symbols, it's easier to understand so I can… _Robin thought with a smile, _Wait a minute… Who? Who was I thinking about just now? It seems something is missing…_

In the workshop, Usopp was once again telling Franky stories about Sogeking while they were building and testing their works.

"Hey Franky, are you listening to me?" grumbled Usopp.

"Hum… yeah yeah, it's just I already heard these stories a lot… What about telling them to someone else?" Franky said.

"Ah, if only F.. was there, she would listen to me with passion!" Usopp lamented, shaking his head.

"If only she was here, I could escape this story-telling torture…" Franky thought before adding loudly, "Then, I am going to fetch F… Huh? Hey, who did I just say I will go fetch?" asked Franky, puzzled.

"I… I don't remember either." Usopp said, scratching his cheek.

On the deck, Zoro was training as usual. He then stopped doing weightlifting to take his swords and work on his techniques.

_Closing down the distance, reducing my perimeter, improving my garde_… Zoro thought, focused on his goals, _Do NOT let her the opportunity to enter my perimeter… No way that I would let her get close to me again, she…_

Zoro abruptly stopped the move he was practicing.

"Wait a minute… She? She, who? Who was I thinking about just now?" Zoro panted, confused.

At different places of the Thousand Sunny, Luffy and the others were staring at the empty space and at their empty memory, completely puzzled, feeling as if they just forgot about something important but not remembering what it was…

"Oh well! If it's important, it will come back to me!" Luffy grinned.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	5. Story II, Nightmare

_What happens when an author of fan-fiction hopes to modify the scenario of Oda-Sensei but does not have time for creating an original character to add into the storyline?_

* * *

**Original Happening Date: **10th February 2010**  
Universe: **Dream-related Universe**  
Themes: **Adventure, Tragedy  
**Pairings: **AceXOC (somehow…)  
**Number of Chapters: **1 **/ Words: **15.500  
**Rating: **T  
**Warnings: **Spoilers Marine Ford Arc, especially its tragic end  
**Credits:** All characters beside the two OCs (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and other respective copyrights owners.  
**Guest Star:** OC Clow, alias Clowsama ( u/1552380/Clowsama)

*****RELATED AMV*** **_Prequel of this chapter, focused on Ace _"Send me an Angel" | Video on YouTube: watch?v=TFw_JLyi-y4

* * *

**THE DAY AN AUTHOR SENT HIS SISTER INTO ONE PIECE BECAUSE HE LACKED STAFF**

**...**

BADABAM.

_Ouch… Speaking of a hurtful way of waking up… Did I fall from my bed or something…?_

Fuu came to life and sat down on the wooden floor, blinking until her eyes got used to the light. Her mind cleared up and she looked around her. A guy, topless, with a necklace of big red pearls, was lying on his knees near her, flanked by the blades of two soldiers.

_Eh?_

Another guy was standing in her back, dressed in white with a seagull on his helmet, his face the picture of calm bewilderment when staring at her, a snail ringing in his hands.

_Eh?_

A bit farther, an old man in Admiral Uniform had sit down cross-legged, stopping his melancholic contemplation of the skyline to give her a puzzled glance.

_Eh?_

Right in front of her, the horizon was filled with ships flying multiple pirates flags, launched in a heroic battle.

_Eeeeeehhh?_

The wind blew… bringing to her face the smell of salt and adventure from beyond the endless seas…

_NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_

_Don't tell me I am back into One Piece?! No, why?! I didn't fight with my brother about this topic, recently… And I already changed my mind about the people of this world, didn't I? I sincerely like them now, so why? WHY?!_

Fuu was desperately gawping at the scene under her feet: a war raging between titans…

She turning her head from left to right, she forcefully scanned her surroundings, seeking an escape to the situation she was now in. But it was impossible not to conclude to be that not only had she been catapulted into One Piece world again without prior notice, but she had also landed in the middle of the public execution of Portgas D. Ace, in the heart of the Marine base on Grand Line.

BAM. Her fist fell on the wooden floor, as if to express all her frustration, while her face looked at the same time desperate, sulking and resigned.

Her reaction was so weird that even the two guards and the Fleet Admiral were perplexed on what to do with this girl who just barged in here from God knows where, and who didn't look like the style of opponents they had prepared themselves to fight when entering this war.

_What the hell is going on?!_

_What am I doing here? What am I supposed to do? Is my brother crazy or something… Why did he send me back here again?! If he wanted to offer me free holidays on All Blue, the Thousand Sunny would have been a far better destination than this place which looks like a bloody battleground!_

"Just who is this girl…?" Garp muttered between his teeth, "She lands in the heart of the battlefield where the future of the pirate era will be decided and she seems definitely out of place…"

"She's kind of pitiful…" commented the two guards, looking at the girl lost in her own world.

Still bewildered and depressed, Fuu's eyes ended up wandering on Sengoku with a sheepish expression, on the guards with a worried glance for their blades, on Garp with a curious pout and finally on Ace, frowning deeply at seeing the shackles pinning him to the wooden platform.

Her eyes stopped on the tattoo on his left arm.

_A$CE… Huh… So it's him, Ace…? Luffy's brother…? He seems quite in trouble… Sigh… _

Fuu stared earnestly at him, as if searching for answers no one was giving her.

_He looks strong, just like Luffy said back then… Oh, and now that I think about it, he's also kind of good-looking… I take back what I said about One Piece characters for not being handsome enough to deserve romantic fantasies… So in the end, I guess it can justify that some fan-girls want to be sent into this world to live romances here… Sigh…_

_Well, if there is one willing up to trade places with me right now, she's most welcome! I offer her a golden opportunity!_

SHIN. Only the wind sweeping the bay and the faraway ruckus of the battlefield answered Fuu's wishful offer.

_Hum… as if that could work… _she though bitterly while averting her eyes in a sulking expression at her own stupidity for having thought a mere second that someone would pop up to solve her problem.

Fuu looked back at Ace with a resigned pout and let out another deep sigh.

Ace seemed equally – if not more – confused than the others, looking at this girl coming from nowhere, dressed up very strangely even for a pirate – an ecru baby-doll nightgown bordered with dark purple satin, a pyjama quite common-looking in the real world but not on Grand Line and even less on a battlefield – and who seemed to bitterly regret having landed near him – him who was the catalyst of this war and target of all the pirates and Marines assembled on this island – despite her reaching this point without a single scratch, while it was a serious bloodbath downstairs, no one managing to approach the wooden platform…

"Wh… who are you?" Fleet Admiral Sengoku finally broke the silence, completely perplexed.

_This young woman is very weird, but I do not feel any dangerous intent from her, and based on my files, I don't remember her having any bounty on her head…_

_Could she be one of the inhabitants of this island who didn't get evacuated? Impossible, we carefully double-checked ages ago that no civil had been left behind… But here she is, and her apparition wasn't part of my strategy… _considered the Fleet Admiral while mentally listing all the plausible reasons for her being there and how she should be taken care of accordingly.

"Ah, hum… Please don't concern yourself with me! I am just in passing…" Fuu vaguely answered in a sigh, making Sengoku even more puzzled and tensed.

_Just in passing, as usual… I am not even from this world and it's not like I came to fight or anything… So they really do not have to worry…!_

_I should be the one worried… since the matter at hand, now, is finding out what my brother is expecting from me before he lets me go back to our world… _Fuu sighed, more and more resigned about her own brother's whims.

Fuu turned back to stare at Ace with phlegmatic insistence, instinct and common sense telling her that he was the key element of her 'mission' here, his beat-up countenance, the shackles and the fact he was the older brother of the hero being more than enough hints.

"You're Ace…? Luffy's brother, aren't you?" she asked in a casual tone.

SHIN. Ace blinked a couple of time, dumbfounded by the question.

"Are you… one of Luffy's nakamas?" he asked while thinking: _Only Luffy can have such a weird nakama… Just who is this girl? She doesn't feel pressure or something?! What the heck is she thinking, being on this execution platform, coolly telling to Sengoku that she's just 'in passing'? Did she come to help me or just to enjoy the panorama?!_

GURA GURA. At this very moment, the battle happening under-wards reached the platform, and a huge shockwave created by an unknown source extended towards the wooden tower, before abruptly stopping – or rather being blocked – just in front of it, the whole structure avoiding obliteration in the process but still getting heavily destabilized.

BAM. Ace fell forward and crashed on the floor head first, not managing to keep his balance in his kneeling position, and Fuu dug her nails in the wooden floor to try and stay standing – or rather sitting, for not having changed position ever since her fall.

On the other side, the two guards flanking Ace, them, completely lost their balance and fell from the platform, rebounding at each step of the stair leading to the stone battlements.

_Oh, my… I guess that means today's adventure is beginning. So… what am I supposed to do, in the middle of this titanic war between pirates and Marines?_

Fuu shot a quick glance at the prisoner and the two Admirals still around – though their complete focus was directed at someone else, the very same person who had sent them the shockwave.

Blood rushed to her brain with adrenaline to try and think of a smart thing to do.

_Ace… Luffy's brother… execution…_

_Okay so then, saving Ace and bringing him back to Luffy would be great… But although it sounds good to me, there's honestly few chances to succeed, taking into account my pitiful level of strength comparing to all the big bosses we are quite sure to meet along the way…_

A quick look around informed her that now was the perfect timing to try something, if something she was going to try: two guards out, two Admirals not focussed, and reinforcement apparently slow to arrive.

_Maybe I can think about that later…_

Taking advantage of the tremor, Fuu brought her leg under her body and extended it violently, targeting the Admiral Sengoku's feet, which hit each other.

Completely surprised due to the lack of fighting aura of Fuu, Sengoku got brushed off – for the mere ten centimetres left between him and the border of the platform – and fell down until the bottom of the tower. But he had no trouble readjusting his balance and, pushing hard on the stone floor, jumped back on the wooden platform in no time.

Having now determined how to qualify and treat the strange girl who had landed in front on his eyes some minutes before, he clenched his fist and charged Fuu, under the passive look of Garp who had – on his side – determined that it was better not to interfere for now, for the safety of his Vice-Admiral position as well as the life of his grand-son.

_Ugh, he jumped back here immediately! _Fuu quickly realised who hadn't even gained time enough to stand up, _As expected from this strong-looking guy…_

_But to counter-attack already, give me a break! Miss me, miss me… If he touches me, I am dead, for sure… Even if it's only a punch, a punch from such a strong-looking Admiral must be lethal! Please make it so that I can dodge his attacks and find time to escape…_

FUSH. The Admiral's fist missed Fuu, under the uttered amazement of the two protagonists and two witnesses.

Sengoku launched a new hit but with the same result: his fist seemed deviated, as if it was hitting a mirage, and kept on missing its target.

_Phew… I am saved! _Fuu heaved with relief, still crawling back a bit with anxiety but agreeably surprised by the turn of events,_ I don't really know why but…_

FUSH… FUSH… FUSH… The Admiral's hand was passing through the hazy shape of Fuu's body repeatedly and Sengoku couldn't understand why, as Haki seemed useless against it, informing him that the trick used by the girl was completely different from a Logia ability.

_But it's just for now… _Fuu soon focused with concern, _I need to find a way to make a diversion and help Ace to get free so that we can go down from here together…_

_Some diversion, something… Hum, I wish I could blind them and make use of it, somehow…_

FLASH. A blinding flash emerged from Fuu when Sengoku grazed her with his fist, paralyzing momentarily the Admiral and making the hazelnut-haired girl gasped at the situation with utter amazement.

_Wow… Amazing, how come everything is going fine? My mind must be playing tricks on me… but even if it's a trick, I'd better seize this opportunity to get Ace and run away from here, while we… _she though at full speed while crawling back on her feet to try and stand up, before falling back on backwards in panic at realizing what was waiting for her down the platform.

_Kyaa! Why are we at twenty meters from the ground…?! Why is there only stairs to reach the stone battlements? How I am supposed to reach the bay and the pirate ships? I am not Luffy: I can't just jump and hope to be okay afterwards… never minding that my legs aren't even answering me anymore… Damned fear of heights… How are we supposed to fly away from here? I guess I would need to literally fly for…_

FLUUT… Two immaculate wings emerged from Fuu's back, light and stretch like the wind, leaving Fuu completely mesmerized, but not as much as Ace or Garp whose jaws had just fallen down in the same flabbergasted expression.

Sengoku – who had by now rubbed his eyes long enough to distinguish the blurry silhouette of the girl with white wings – was trying to integrate the new data in his mind, with a serious yet lost expression: _What's with this girl? She must have the power of a Devil Fruit so why isn't she emitting any fighting aura or Haki? And why can't I counter her ability with mine?_

_Wow … White wings, hihihi, so cute… _Fuu wassmiling with delight, adrenaline and this new marvel having momentarily removed her previous panic.

_Hey, now is not the time to think about that! I don't really understand what is happening but if I don't hurry, I will miss my chance… Yosh!_

"Ace, we're leaving!" Fuu exclaimed enthusiastically, jumping towards him to try and make him stand by pulling him by his arm.

But at immediately realizing that the shackles were not only tying him up, but also linking him to the wooden platform, she changed the object of her efforts and seized the handcuffs with both hands to try and release them.

"KYAA!" Fuu screamed as she was projected on the floor at Ace's knees by a violent shock, while her wings were disappearing in a crackle of torn feathers.

_Ouch… But why? _she mumbled for herself while feeling numb in her whole body.

DONG. DONG. DONG.

The huge clock of Marine Ford rang three o'clock, and the sound of the bell chimed like a death knell for the pirates fighting there.

"It's time! Your life finishes now, Gol D. Ace! The bloodline of the Pirate King is going to disappear from this Earth, despite all your efforts!" Admiral Sengoku shouted, instructing the two guards who had recently climbed back on the scaffold to lower their blades on Ace – and somehow on Fuu who was near him.

"NO!" Fuu screamed, raising her arms above her head, as if hoping to use them as a shield, but without the presence of mind of moving from where she was.

_No! I don't want that… I want to bring him back to Luffy. I decided that it will be my mission here, so I can't let him die… I don't want to let him die! I want… I want to protect him!_

SCHLING. A light barrier surrounded immediately Fuu and Ace, in a flash of pure white light.

_Wh… what…?_

BAM. The two blades rebounded on the light shield.

SHIN. A small second of realization passed, as the two executioners were gasping at seeing that the translucent dome had stopped their two blades before they could reach their target.

"W…H…A…T…?!" Admiral Sengoku snarled, more and more irritated by all these tricks which were definitely not part of his plans for this War.

Having soon recovered from their surprise, both soldiers repeated their tentative, but despite their numerous trials, their blades kept on getting deflected in numerous light flashes mixed with the crackle of steel.

_Wh… why…? H… how…?! _Fuu though while prudently lowering her arms from above her head, as if afraid of making the light barrier falter at the mere gesture.

And while doing so, she gradually noticed a long inscription on her left forearm. In the calligraphic brushes of black ink was written:

"It does no harm just once, so I will lend you a hand. You are granted the power of the Hoshi Hoshi no Mi, the ability of wishes. It should be practical enough even for your weird sense of fighting, and knowing you as I know you, you won't have any trouble using it with your endless imagination… And back to business, my protagonists are quite in trouble so I'm counting on you to help Luffy save the day."

The whole followed by a stinky blinking smiley thumbs up.

SHIN. Fuu's expression turned dark as she was gazing at the inscription, her whole body trembling with controlled fury and frustration.

_THAT… DAMN… AUTHOR OF A BROTHER!_

_When I'll be back home, I'll slaughter him! He's got the hell of a nerve! How come 'just once, I will lend you a hand' when everything is your damn fault, you stupid! How come 'help Luffy' when I don't even know where he is? How come 'save the day'?! If you needed a character to come and help your heroes, just create one! Grr!_

"Is that… your power?" Ace interrupted, awestruck to see the light barrier actually resist the blade, and even Admiral Sengoku's punches, but still cautious.

TILT. The voice of Luffy's brother made Fuu snap from her little private rant, and she warily turned towards him.

"Wh… who are you?" Ace earnestly asked, his tone quite suspicious but his eyes enlightened by hope.

"You should be Luffy's nakama? But I don't remember meeting you at Water Seven…" Garp muttered from a bit afar, his tone quite puzzled as he was scratching his head.

This time, it was both Ace and Fuu who looked in the direction of the Vice-Admiral with shared expression.

"Jiji…" Ace muttered, his feelings unsteady as he was gazing at his grand-father's face.

"Oh but do as you wish, youngsters, do not worry about an old man like me…" Garp joked whole-heartedly, before adding for Fuu with a weary smile, "Besides, if Sengoku can't do anything against your Devil Fruit power, I doubt I would be able to prevent you from saving my grandson…"

The declaration had made both the grand-father and grandson smile sadly, but Fuu's face had on the other end been enlightened by a happy smile of understanding.

_Of course! A Devil Fruit! The Hoshi Hoshi no Mi… So that's why I lost this wings power when I touched these damned handcuffs in stone of Kai-I-don't-remember-what…_

_Ace's handcuffs… I need to get rid of them! A key, the key, I need the key… need… wish… Hoshi… Wish, make a wish…_

Not really knowing how to use the power of her strange Devil Fruit but still thrilled by how easy had been her previous trials, Fuu tried to mentally picture a key that would allow her to free Ace from his handcuffs.

Her hands joined in prayer, her eyes closed, her mind completely focused on her wish, she gradually felt small particles of light agglomerating within her hands, and in a cute 'CLING' the key appeared.

_Great, the key! It's the key! This power is actually pretty useful, especially coming from something Clow invented…!_

"Impressive." Garp admitted in a little smile, while Ace's eyes were widening in pure disbelief.

BAM. A bright yellow laser coming from nowhere rebounded on the light barrier, missing the chance to destroy the newly-created key, and giving Fuu some alarm and the will of getting away from the platform as soon as possible.

The key was inserted in the lock, and under the revolted expression of Sengoku who hadn't managed to break through Fuu's magical barrier for all this time, the Kairoseki handcuffs fell from Ace's wrists.

SNAP. The Fleet Admiral thus considered he had been unsuccessful long enough and took the decision of using his own ability to counter.

Falling into a passive attitude, Sengoku started focusing his energy on. A golden aura slowly surrounded him and started to make him grow bigger and bigger.

On the side of the prisoner, despite the removal of the handcuffs, Ace had half collapsed on Fuu, as if all the fatigue accumulated at Impel Down under the torture and all the hits he had received when he didn't have his powers had suddenly caught him up.

"Hey, make an effort, would you?! I am really not strong for your information…" Fuu half complained, annoyed to have such a heavy weight falling onto her, but still inwardly worried for the prisoner.

_Now, flying away… Ugh…_

Holding Ace in her arms, Fuu made once more her wings appear in a sparkling light – while she was inwardly congratulating herself for being able to use the Devil Fruit power quite properly already – and took off from the execution platform.

BAM. A huge blow against Fuu's shield knocked the wind out of her, and propelled her passenger and herself far from the execution platform.

Behind them, Garp was smirking, gazing at his fist with an amused expression, before jumping swiftly from the execution tower to land on the stone settlements with a satisfied countenance.

Still shaken by the blow, Fuu turned back precipitately to shot a glance at her supposed opponent, but what she saw made her forget to breathe. In their back, a gigantic Buddha hand had been reaching out for them, missing them by a few metres, while the execution platform was collapsing under the weight of a golden colossus.

_What the... _Fuu gasped in disbelief, completely panicking at the thought that Sengoku could have reached them if she had took off a couple of seconds later, _Getting away, getting away! What's with this crazy world and crazy abilities?! I need to get away as soon as possible!_

After recovering from the shock, Fuu struggled long seconds on her balance and finally managed to progress normally with her wings. But flying away wasn't as easy as expected, and as she was trying her best to keep her mind focused on this new flying ability, she realised the light shield still around them was now dangerously blinking, as if it was about to disappear.

_Waaaahhh! Please stay here! I really need you, little shield! _she panicked while cold sweats were running down her spin at the thought of her having to face monstrous attacks like the one from the golden giant without any protection.

But as Fuu was trying to focus her mind on maintaining her shield and stretching it into a bubble around the both of them, she couldn't help but notice that the whole forces assembled on the plaza had now taken note of her presence. The huge chaos of the execution platform collapsing had heavily contributed to attract everyone's attention, and a lot of bystanders had started either to cheer or to take Ace and her as their target.

More especially, she spotted three tall-looking guys in bright suits and Admiral coats who were starting to come their way – apparently delaying their actions on whatever other enemies they were supposed to take care of – and Fuu quickly sorted out her priorities and wished for adding an invisibility membrane to the shield bubble – dangerously losing several metres of altitude in the process, but it was better than having to worry about lasers and ice spears coming from strong-looking Marines she knew nothing about…

And having finally finished casted her defensive barriers, she tried to resume her flight… as she could. The first metres – more like tens of metres – were really chaotic and worse than a fledging first flight, but she comforted herself with the thought that at least no one else was witnessing it, thanks to the invisibility shield.

The problem of the Devil Fruit having been dealt with as she could, she finally resumed a reasonable equilibrium, and only had her passenger to take care of – which was already a handful. She had brought Ace's arm around her shoulders and had slipped her own arm around his chest, but she had a lot of trouble supporting his weight and was permanently struggling to keep her balance, her flight trajectory rather resembling the one of a drunkard.

_Ugh… He's really heavy! No, seriously, why is it that guys in Shounen mangas are always all build up and hefty? Why didn't anyone tell mangakas that muscles are a HEAVY part of anatomy…?!_

Minutes passed in relative calmness but a rush of feelings and thoughts.

Under them, the battle was raging, and Fuu was desperately trying not to see it and not to let her heart seize the measure of what was happening, while earnestly looking for Luffy in order to accomplish her self-proclaimed mission to bring him back his older brother.

But without any known ally on sight, she was only circling around above the plaza, trying her best to spot a red vest, and avoiding the best she could any bullet or Logia elemental attack lost in mid-air – since the invisibility bubble was apparently quite efficient and had made everyone else lose sight of them, including the yellow-suit-wearing man that Fuu was fearing for his lasers…

_Where is he…? Where is Luffy? I finally managed to do something useful so I would really enjoy bringing Ace back to Luffy. This famous big brother Luffy is so proud of… I remember him telling me about him last time, that he had a strong brother my age with a really 'cool' power of fire…_

_That being said, if Ace really is that impressive, he could have avoided to collapse on me like that: I can't even tell if he is hurt or just sleeping – well, although being able to fall asleep now would be some serious narcolepsy, I guess, hihihi…_

But Fuu's laughter deadened in her throat, as she was starting to breath with difficulty, sweat beading on her forehead.

_Humph… Even if I know using a Devil Fruit is supposed to be tiring, I think I'm tiring really quickly… I am already short of breath! I don't think I will be able to maintain these multiple shields for long… I guess any power has a back-kick, huh… This Devil Fruit is really powerful and… all this magic… that sounds like a RPG of Heroic Fantasy, hihihi! Well, I must recognize that being able to do anything I desire is pretty cool, so…_

_Wait… wait a minute: everything I WISH? Oh my God, tell me it's a mistake?! Is it even possible for such a Fruit to exist in this world?!_

A big flashing sign appeared in Fuu's mind with the mention 'Absolute Power' on it, and her expression turned into an annoyed pout punctuated with passing twitches of exasperation.

_Or course not…_

_Byt anyway, what came across my brother's mind to create such a fearsome power? I am sure it does NOT exist in this world, this fruit: it can't, and it MUSTN'T! Everything a person desire, that's dead dangerous! And…_

"… Luffy… Everyone…" chimed in a mumble, interrupting her little inward talk.

Fuu turned her eyes towards Ace, who was still half unconscious.

"Hum… You're quite out of shape for now, you know…! Or if you ARE in shape, do me the favour of saving yourself by yourself: you're supposed to be super strong guy of Logia type, aren't you…?" Fuu answered in a whisper, as if speaking to herself, but her face quite worried despite her speech, "Baka…"

_He seems all beat up, he collapsed, he can't even hold himself together, but even in this state, he still thinks about his brother… Stupid, baka, aho! Are all pirates as stupid as Luffy and him, caring about the others before caring about themselves…?! Grr, Clow is going to laugh at me again for having a soft spot for this kind of things…_

_Waaaaaah, stop right here my mind! Now is not the time to think about that! What am I thinking, magic, RPG, soft spots and etc., there are a couple of things more important now, and…_

_Oh, wait, if I really can play it like in a RPG, it means I can give him his energy back, like a priest spell or… But of course! I can wish for him to recover from his exhaustion… It might be a bit risky, considering the level of MY energy but well, it's more important for the rest of the battle if Ace is the one with full health… Definitely more useful…_

_Okay, let's focus… If I were a priest in a RPG, I would concentrate my sacred energy – sacred or whatever – in my hands before doing laying-on-of-hands on the patient… Let's try: visualization!_

Fuu was now flying on standby above the roofs or Marine Ford – flying straight blind while focusing on something else was far away from her capabilities, and she knew it – so that she could close her eyes to focus on gathering healing energy for Ace, whispering incantations.

Like during the creation of the key, Fuu was feeling small particles of light gathering, but because her hands were both occupied preventing Ace from falling down, this energy naturally gathered in the other part of her body dedicated to the spell: her lips chanting her healing wish – for whatever reason Fuu had felt it was needed to mutter incantations for a priest 'spell'.

When she reopened her eyes, sure that she had gathered enough magical energy, her lips were gleaming with a velvety silver glitter.

_NOOOOOO!_

_Why?! Why the lips? Come on, I am really fed up with everything gets messed up… I am quite sure that my idiot of a brother is enjoying writing his scenario without the single consideration for the feelings of the people involved… When I'll be back, I'll slaughter him for sure!_

_Grr, but why the lips?! Well, sure, my hands are kind of full right now but it could have been somewhere else, I don't know, my nose, my forehead… anything else!_

Fuu was now looking at the exhausted face of Ace, at only a few decimetres from hers, her heart shared between concern and embarrassment but most definitely ill-at-ease.

"Lu… Luffy…" was still muttering the recently-freed prisoner.

"Ace…" Fuu sighed, genuinely worried for her passenger.

_Oh, fine! I'll do it! But if he wakes up before I finish healing him, I'll slaughter him too, Luffy's brother or not, humph…_

Fuu slowly moved her face closer and, focusing her mind on her healing wish, kissed Ace… on his forehead!

A gentle aura of silver light gradually shined from her lips through Ace, progressively closing his wounds and soothing his bruises.

_Ha ha ha! Who said my lips couldn't choose their target?! Serves you right, stupid brother! Even if… it's still embarrassing… I hope that doesn't put me in the same basket as those perverted fan-girls from the real world… Sigh… Well, that's the least of my problems now, I guess…_

The shining aura faded away and Fuu torn her lips apart from their object, the healing spell finishing with… the brutal fall of Fuu and Ace of at least five or six meters of altitude.

"Kyaaaa!" Fuu blurted out, readjusting her balance at the last minute, meaning just before passing through a roof.

_Ugh… I feel really really weak, why? It's worse than an anaemia crisis, I feel like my body weights one ton… Did I overdo it? In theory, it's a healing spell, not magnetism, so it shouldn't have absorbed my energy to transfer it to Ace… Not that I would have enough energy for a guy as strong as Ace in any case, but… Ugh… the shield and my wings are still there but my head is spinning…_

"Hum… Not yet harnessed, your power!" let slowly slip a masculine voice on her left.

"What?!" Fuu shouted.

Fuu flipped abruptly her head to the side, only to realize that Ace's face was now barely a few centimetres only from hers, and that he was gazing at her with a teasing look – normal look but when one is vexed, everything looks teasing – that made her blush.

"I'm doing my best, you know!" Fuu riposted, angry.

_I already realized that this power is hard to harness… So don't rub in salt on it!_

"And it's your entire fault! You're heavy and on top of that you were unconscious: a guy heavy and lifeless is even heavier!" Fuu said, quickly looking away to focus her attention on her flight trajectory.

SHIN. Ace froze a few seconds, quite surprised of the girl's reaction, and he fought back a smile as he was muttering and amused 'Sorry'.

"Is it possible for you to make us fly down?" he asked afterwards in a serious tone, while contemplating the battlefield nearly twenty meters under his feet with eyes full of bitterness and guilt.

"Yes, but not now! Only when we will find Luffy! I can't just let you run in the middle of such a war without allies and…" Fuu answered, quite determined, while thinking: _Well, allies I know about… On this one, I quite regret not to have followed One Piece adventures: I don't even know what Ace's nakamas look like… I remember Luffy telling me he was part of another pirate crew, but…_

But Fuu didn't have time to finish her train of thoughts, as she suddenly felt an arm leaving her neck and shoulder and something slip away from her arms.

_W… W….H…A…T…?!_

BAM. Fuu dashed forward and grabbed Ace's wrist with both hands, pushing hard with her wings in mid-air to try and recover her balance.

"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!" she shouted, out of her senses, to the man who had deliberately let go of her to jump towards the battlefield.

"Let go of me!" Ace ordered while shaking his wrist to free it from Fuu's grip, his eyes pinned on the battle happening under him, and more especially on all his nakamas which were now fighting on the plaza after having made use of the chaos caused around the execution platform to get pass the walls and reach the main square.

"What are you saying?! We're about ten metres above the ground!" Fuu panicked, her head even starting to spin a little for being obliged to look down at the emptiness under her when looking at Ace.

TILT. Ace's eyes widened a bit, the eeriness of the remark having made his attention switch from the battlefield to his interlocutor.

"What are YOU saying?" he muttered in a perplexed tone, "That much is nothing…"

TILT. This time, it was Fuu's eyes which widened of bewilderment, before she bit her inferior lip while inwardly cursing herself, her cheeks a bit red with shame.

_Damned these Shounen mangas heroes! Of course ten metres is nothing for you… but that's not a reason!_

"Let go of me!" Ace repeated, pinning his eyes in Fuu's with determination.

"Not now!" Fuu snapped, annoyed to see her nice resolution shattered by the stubbornness of someone not really docile in getting saved.

"My nakamas are all down there fighting because of me, so let go of me!" Ace shouted, his eyes animated with a burning desire to help them out and pay back the favour.

"I won't let go of you!" Fuu shouted back, definitely pissed by the request, "If your nakamas are all there for you, then don't ruin their efforts by running head first into some suicidal battle!"

TILT. Ace had frozen for a few seconds, dismayed by the remark.

_What's the problem with these Shounen manga heroes, seriously?! Don't they have any preservation instinct?! Don't they care about being hurt?! Don't they care about dying?!_

"If you really want to pay back your nakamas and make it worth it for them to have come, then stay safe and don't do anything stupid!" Fuu pursued with an angry lecturing tone.

BOM. A couple of bullets rebounded on the light barrier, making Fuu suddenly realize that she had let her focus get loose, and that Ace having moved out of the shield protection had weakened the invisibility barrier – but apparently just enough for some Marine soldiers nearby to notice a weird shape in mid-air and start firing at it, while some other soldiers were calling the Admirals over.

"Let go of me…" Ace repeated is a murmur, as if doubting of his own decision.

"I won't!" Fuu retorted while starting to pull with all her strength Ace by his wrist to make him come back under the cover of the bubble-shaped shield his jumping-off had made him leave.

BOM. A new salvo of bullets came their way, some getting through Ace who healed the impact with his Logia ability, some rebounding on the barrier, but one unfortunately grazing Fuu's arm which was out of the cover of the shield.

_Kyaaaa! _she screamed inwardly, sealing lips together to hold back a painful shriek, while her hands were clenching of pain on Ace's wrist.

To Fuu's wound answered a loss of focus, and the both of them fell from a couple of metres again, to Fuu's extreme panic.

"Just let go of me, you've helped a lot already…" Ace said with a grimace at seeing the bruise on her arm but her unwavering expression.

"I decided I'll bring you back to Luffy…" Fuu answered in a low voice panting a bit, as she was clenching her fingers harder around Ace's wrist to try and bring him back up.

"I already told Luffy that he shouldn't even be here!" Ace snapped at the remembrance of his little brother unexpected arrival, "Nor you, nor him! I can manage on my own!"

"I don't care…" Fuu mumbled as fury and frustration were growing more and more inside her.

_I don't care… It's not even to comply with my brother's whims anymore…_

"What the…" Ace thundered, losing his temper at the answer, "I have my own nakamas, I have my own adventures… I made my own decisions; I screwed up on my own…"

"I don't care…" Fuu repeated, her voice shaking as she was swallowing back tears of rage and determination.

_It's not even because I want to be back home as soon as possible… it's not even because I promised myself to do something useful and bring him back to Luffy…_

Fuu's eyes were still trying not to see the battles raging under her, but the whole atmosphere of the war was slowly seeping into her, making her revolted and ready to burst into tears.

_It's just… it's just that it's too painful to see another living being get hurt or die… _she thought while biting her inferior lip to the blood to try and not lose her focus.

"You don't even know me, so just leave me alone!" Ace roared, completely furious and his heart set in turmoil by the downpour of emotions he was feeling.

"I don't care! I don't want you to die!" Fuu shouted back, tears building up under her eyelids but her expression as determined as ever.

TLING.

To its owner total surprise, an intense golden light started growing from Fuu's hands and soon surrounded Ace – an Ace who had frozen at the previous declaration and was still trying to integrate it – before slowly making him float until Fuu's level.

_Wow… _Fuu thought in front of this new demonstration of power.

Ace was also completely mesmerized, feeling like his body was floating.

"Tsk, cheater…" he finally muttered in a resigned smile, "Your Devil Fruit is really a pain…"

"Wh… what?!" Fuu snapped, deeply vexed by the comment, "It's… I… it can't be helped! I'm trying my best to control my wishes, you know!"

"Your… 'wishes'?" Ace repeated, astonished by the comment.

"Ah, hum… that's…" Fuu panicked a bit, realising that she had said too much, "Anyway, we're going to look for Luffy… so just put up with me for a few more minutes…"

Ace shot a glance at the battlefield, then at his faintly-blushing interlocutor, and heaved an amused sigh.

"Put up with you, hum… I guess it can't be helped." he muttered with a faint smile.

And as Fuu was holding her hand towards him to resume their flight, he slowly wrapped his arm around her waist, supporting the major part of their weight on his shoulder, as the golden light of levitation was blending with the shield and invisibility bubble.

_Huh? Th… thanks, I guess… This guy can be considerate, somewhat… _Fuu thought at realising their new position was easier to manoeuvre when flying.

They took off again, Fuu trying to keep her focus on her Devil Fruit power and Ace trying to keep the guilty part of him quiet to think more seriously about the previous declarations of his hazelnut-haired saviour.

Some minutes flew by in silence, during which Fuu was desperately looking for a red-vest-strawhat-wearing pirate, but without any success. And when she turned her eyes on her left, she met a really insistent gaze.

"Wh… what?" Fuu hesitated, with an apprehensive look for Ace.

The question made him leave his inward debates and he answered the first thing passing by his mind at the moment.

"Oh, hum… I was wondering… When you healed me, was it also your power?" Ace began, an amused stretching his lips has the question was forming itself.

"W… Well, ye… Yes, I guess we can say it was…" Fuu mumbled, starting to panic at the remembrance.

_What is his point? What is he trying to come at? He was unconscious, right? He wasn't awake at that moment… Tell me he wasn't awake!_

"I see… And how many people have you kissed thanks to that power?" Ace asked with a jesting smirk.

BONG. Fuu's fist just rang out on Ace's head, provoking a thumping pain in her hand.

_Ouch, I've hit him with everything I had; I shouldn't have… even if he deserved it!_

"No but really?! Are all Luffy's nakamas that violent?" Ace said, rubbing his head with his free hand, "What's with this habit of causing swelling bumps on the heads of the people close to you?"

"I don't remember being close to you!" Fuu riposted tit for tat, "And that's your entire fault for asking such a… such a… stupid question!"

Fuu glared at Ace and blushed furiously before glancing away to try for the umpteenth time to find Luffy in the crowd of pirates and Marines under them.

Ace couldn't help but smiling faintly at such a reaction.

"Well…" he added afterwards, his tone a bit more serious, "Never mind how it works, I must admit that your power is very impressive, even if you don't look strong at all. I wasn't expecting someone like you to come and save me…"

"Oh?" Fuu tilted, deeply vexed by the insinuation, "Well, I hope you will forgive me for that! My arrival here and your rescue were somewhat… unanticipated!" said she with a frosty tone.

Ace looked puzzled a brief second. Her throwing herself into a war without any 'anticipated' plan could only increase his curiosity, but also his guilt at having dragged into such a big-scaled mess people unrelated to him.

"I know that… because of me, my nakamas and even strangers are now trapped in this battle. It's all my responsibility, I know!" Ace admitted with a serious look for his winged 'pilot', and a heavy tone reflecting his heavy feelings at such a thought, "So… for having come to help me despite all of that, you have all my consideration. I am really grateful!"

And when finally taking his eyes off Fuu's face, he bowed his head very politely.

"Ah, hum, you… you're welcome, really…" Fuu muttered with embarrassment, quite confused by such an extreme civility.

_Is he really Luffy's brother? How come he can be so polite and responsible when being Luffy's brother?!_

_And it's not like helping him deserves any special attention, come on… _tried to calm down Fuu, _I mean, everyone would do the same… It's not like one could stand by and watch him being executed without trying something! He doesn't have to make such a fuss over it, does he… It's just… just normal because…_

"I would hate it if you died, after all…" Fuu admitted in low voice as if speaking to herself, in a faint but genuine smile.

TILT. Ace's eyes widened as he slowly incorporated the confirmation of her previous declaration, and he slightly bent his head, his eyes now in the shadow of his hair, to hide a smile.

SHIN. Some minutes passed by in silence – or rather paced by the chaotic rumbling noise of the war under their feet, while Fuu was now flying higher to have a better look at the situation and search for Luffy.

But curiosity finally overcame self-restraint on his side, as he was discreetly eying Fuu from every angle, finding some aspects too intriguing for not burning with the envy to ask for clarification.

"Hum… You know, I was really amazed when you fell from the sky nearby me…" Ace remarked in a friendly smile, "You really don't look like a pirate!"

"Grr… Well, sorry for not looking like a pirate!" Fuu said, her face sulking a bit.

_Of course I don't look like a pirate… and I'm embarrassed enough to end up in pyjamas in public for not needing another critique on my outfit, grr…_

_He's polite a few seconds, and now he's back to teasing me! Heavens… How could I think a mere second that he looked kind of cool? Luffy, please come and claim your brother right now! He might be more mature and more polite than you but… but…_

"Some strange and fluffy white clothes, long and curly hair… With your shiny wings, you look more like an angel than a pirate." Ace said very casually, crooking a jesting smile, "That is, if you weren't that violent!"

… _Luffy… your brother is a jerk!_ Fuu inwardly sighed, her heart shared between vexation and embarrassment.

She made no answer and averted her eyes, a reaction which surprised Ace for not often having girls turn away from him.

BOM. Some cannonball suddenly grazed them, rebounding on the shield and pushing the two of them a bit out of their trajectory.

TILT. Ace seemed to come back to his senses and precipitately shot a cautious look towards the fight happening under them.

_Damn it! This battle happened because of me! Because of my stubbornness… All my nakamas are here for me and I choose to fly away with a girl: lame… Even when saying it's not to ruin their efforts, it's still lame! And the problem is that… somehow, I'm feeling a bit too comfortable about it…_

_Tsk, what am I saying? So shameful! Why?!_

Involuntarily, his eyes wandered on the girl on his right, whose slender waist he could feel under the fabric of her dress – nightgown more precisely, but it wasn't in his power to make the difference – just within the hold of his right arm.

SHIN. His mind blanked out for a second.

The wind blew, bringing to his face the salty smell of Grand Line, but also the rusty smell of blood covered by the burning smell of powder.

TILT. Ace's eyes recovered their focus, and he cursed himself prodigiously as he was struggling really hard to put his list of priorities in the right order – mainly due to the fact that he was serenely flying in a relative tranquillity tens of metres above the battlefield, and moreover flying right next to her.

_Come on, chill out and focus! _he ordered himself.

His eyes gazed earnestly at the ones of his winged 'pilot', and what he was seeing in Fuu's amber eyes made him even more confused.

_What's with this girl, seriously? She doesn't seem to care about people's ranks or about the outcome of the War… yet she can't help blushing when teased a little!_

Ace glanced back towards the wooden platform – or rather what was left of it – which should have been the scene of his execution, trying to put back his feelings together in the flow of memories.

_I was resigned to accept my death… but my nakamas arrived… for me… as well as this Baka-Otouto… not listening to me and still coming here to fight… for me… So I accepted their wish and believed it might not be that bad to keep on living… I even decided that I could die with no regrets…_

_So why was everything set in turmoil when this girl arrived? Why?! She suddenly interrupted the little speech of Sengoku that was revealing the name of my real father to the entire world, as if it was nothing, and the only question she asked me when she saw me on this execution platform was to confirm that I was Luffy's brother… Luffy's brother…! Not WhiteBeard's Second Commander, not Gol D. Ace! Just… Luffy's brother…_

_No but really… That's as if she had taken off some boulder out of my chest or my shoulders… pestering against me in such a stubborn way but still admitting so honestly that she wants me to live… with just a serene smile and a surprised expression… It a bit… as if now, I could believe that on top of living, I can also follow whoever I want and be happy… Tsk… happy in the middle of this war I provoked? What am I thinking? Urgh… I really need to get down from here before my head cracks up… _Ace thought, gazing discreetly at Fuu who was earnestly searching the chaos under their feet for Luffy but still without any success.

"We should fly down, if you want to go and find Luffy…" Ace finally said, endeavouring to avoid her eyes.

TILT. Fuu made no answer, still in a sulking mood, but agreed with a nod.

While following the advice and slowly flying towards the floor, she granted herself a few seconds of grace to look at the wound on her right arm which was throbbing ardently – on top of the thumbing weariness that was rising more and more inside her, sometimes blurring her vision.

To her surprise, she saw that her right forearm was also displaying a few words brushed with black ink, which she had not seen before:

"P.S: Considering the intensity of this Devil Fruit power, I think you won't be able to use it more than ten times before you exhaust your energy in this world. Good luck. Clow"

SHIN. Fuu had stopped mid-flight, and the wind brushed a few hair-locks from her face, while her expression was turning darker and darker.

… _I AM GOING TO SLAUGHTER HIM!_

_Twice rather than once! How come THIS is a P.S? This kind of 'detail', that deserves to be put in the main body of a message, stupid!_

_My 'energy in this world'…? Sure, no kidding, it explains why I got so suddenly drained! Let's see… ten times… I am already past half of it, most probably… around seven times. With that kind of after-effect, what use can I make of such a fantastic power? If I can't use it, give me something simpler than this Fruit that is disrupting the balance of this world itself! Grr, it pisses me off! He's going to hear me when I'm back… But first, let's find Luffy before I collapse!_

GLING. A leather bracelet decorated with multiples pendant shined a few seconds under the sun of Grand Line.

Fuu gazed with melancholy at the little pearls that glittered and clattered in tinkle bells.

_Luffy… everyone… the bracelet they all made me the first time I ended up in this world…_

_Sigh… Back then, I couldn't do anything when they were fighting hard, but today, I have a very useful ability – regardless of how many times I can use it, grr… – so…_

_I must bring Ace back to Luffy! Definitely! I must find him and help them to run away from this island… I am quite sure they won't be able to face all the big bosses of the Marine if they stay here: this war is of a different level…_

'_Helping Luffy saving the day', huh…? Well, I don't really know how I'm supposed to do that, but I'll try my best!_

"The bond between… nakamas…" Fuu muttered in a whisper, staring at the bracelet with sad but determined eyes.

Ace was gazing at Fuu's face with interrogating eyes but didn't dare to ask her where was such a loving yet melancholic expression coming from.

"Ok, Luffy! Here we come!" Fuu said with resolve, her eyes screening the battlefield.

Her mind focused on maintaining her shields, Fuu brought Ace and herself even closer to the ground, sprinting between the duels and random fights under the cover of her 'spells', looking forcefully for Luffy.

_Ah… Here! FOUND HIM! Why is he wearing a YELLOW vest, tsk…?!_

"Luffy!" Fuu shouted, ecstatic, landing on the ground in front of him in a twirl of dust, while nullifying her invisibility screen to reveal the both of them to the little group of escapees from Impel Down that Luffy was leading across the Plaza.

"Fuu…? ACE! Great!" Luffy exclaimed which needed no time for recovering from the surprise of seeing his brother landing in front of him in such a way – advantage he had above all the other pirates present, which jaws had unhooked in shock and disbelief, "And you seem fine, Ace! I was worried because the paper you gave me was looking strange..."

Luffy pulled out Ace's Vivre Card from the ribbon of his hat to show it to his brother. But the Vivre Card was now just like new, restored at the same time as Ace's health by Fuu's healing spell, a fact which made Luffy show quite a funny puzzled and simple-minded face.

_Hihihi… Luffy's faces really make one forget about all the bad things around… _Fuu inwardly giggled has Ace was carefully letting her down from his arms until her feet could touch ground.

BONG. A loud noise suddenly pulled Fuu out of her happy considerations, and she saw Luffy massaging his head, while Ace was lecturing his little brother for being here and being so stubborn.

"What… were you… thinking?!" Ace yelled, on the binge of nerve break, even if one could easily detect worry and care for his little brother in the trembling tone of his voice, "You're a rookie – just a kid on top of that – and you just barge here to fight against the whole of the Marines… the entire world? What's your problem? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is? You stupid reckless dumbass!"

Jinbei and Ivankov, on the side-lines, nodded fervently to agree with the last statement, but then shrugged their shoulders as if to show their surrender against Mugiwara obstinate and stupid determination.

"But…" Luffy protested, with a sulking expression not matching the seriousness of his speech, "You're my brother! I couldn't just stand by and do nothing!"

"It was my own mistake that provoked all of that!" Ace thundered while clenching his teeth, the weight of remorse and guilt making his face plunge towards the ground, "And it's already bad enough that Oyaji and the whole crew came… that this war exploded because of me… But on top of that, you had to come, YOU, you who… who is just…"

Luffy looked straight at his big brother with a very concerned expression.

"Ace! I know you wanted us to live our own adventures… I know you can fight your own fights, because you're strong! You're even stronger than me, for sure…" Luffy began with an apologetic yet very serious tone, "But if I hadn't come, I would have had regrets all my life! And we promised each other that we will live our lives without regrets…"

TILT. At the remembrance of this promise, Ace clenched his teeth but couldn't argue anything anymore.

SHIN. A short period of silence fall on the chaos of the battlefield, during which Luffy's eyes didn't wander off from his brother – as if to mark his determination – and whilst Ace was clenching his fists until they turned white.

Finally, Ace let out a long and deep sigh, and stepped towards his brother, holding out his hand.

BONG. A punch was launched at very high speed and landed on the head of Luffy, under the utter amazement of the spectators.

"Ouch, it hurts, you know!" Luffy pestered, who was getting back on his feet while holding his reddish cheek in his hand.

"Then we are 'nearly' even!" Ace gently muttered, while helping Luffy to stand up again and rock him in a clumsy hug filled with sibling affection.

"Shishishi…" Luffy laughed with his usual stupid grin, affectionately patting his brother's back, before Ace finally let him go.

_This scene is worth all the wars of this world… _Fuu thought from the side-lines, as usually deeply moved by any touching proof of bonds and affection, and grinning with teary eyes without realising it.

Luffy's eyes finally met hers, he suddenly seemed to remember who was standing in front of him, and he walked towards her with a large grin and his usual energetic countenance.

"That's been a long time, Fuu! I can't really remember when you left, but I'm really happy to see you again! And on top of that, you're bringing me back my Niichan! Nami was right, you're bringing luck, shishishi!" Luffy added, grinning at Fuu.

_Oh… It's true that when a real person leaves this world, everyone forget their memories about it, so they can't even remember that I left them some months ago… Sigh. Well, at least, it makes me very happy to see that they haven't forgotten me completely…_

"Hum, so your name is Fuu…" Ace said with a shared smile, having apparently quickly healed from his remorse and worry, "She's one of your nakamas, Luffy?"

"Yep!" Luffy said with a large grin for Fuu.

Fuu's eyes sparkled with pride under the comment – added to the one of bringing 'good luck' – and it brought a slight blush of joy to her cheeks, which didn't escape one of her interlocutors.

"Say, we should…" tried one of the surrounding pirates – more perceptive than the others and starting to think now wasn't the perfect time for chit-chat – but he was interrupted by Luffy's powerful admiration shout.

"Oh, and you've got wings now, how cool!" Luffy exclaimed, his eyes in star shape when looking at Fuu's back.

"Hum, not really, it's… Well, a lot of things happened, and… Oh, but look…" Fuu answered, raising her right wrist to show the leather bracelet to Luffy, "That's still one of my most precious treasures!" revealed she in a radiant smile.

TILT. She suddenly felt her hand being grabbed.

_Huh… _Fuu paused at seeing Ace taking her hand in his to stare at the bracelet.

"Wow, Luffy… You're offering jewels to girls, now?" Ace asked in a suspicious tone that he had wanted casual but failed to, a strange bitter feeling tingling in his chest but without its owner understanding where it was coming from.

"It's not only Luffy's gift." Fuu said with a more and more radiant smile at remembering how everyone had put their efforts into this gift for her, while slowly snatching her hand back from Ace, "It's everyone's gift! Each pendant represents someone precious for me!"

"Hum…" Ace paused, his smile springing up again after having heard that the bracelet wasn't a special private gift of his little brother, "Hey Luffy, can I borrow back this card from you?" asked Ace, pointing at the Vivre Card in his brother's hand.

"Of course! It's yours, Ace!" Luffy answered, still grinning while tossing it to him.

Ace took the Vivre Card and swiftly cut a thin strip out of it, before giving it back to Luffy. He then rolled it, before kneeling down on the ground to pick up a pinch of sand, under the perplexed expression of the surrounding spectators.

"Hotarubi." said Ace while lighting up a single bubble of green-white fire between his fingers, inside which the sand started melting.

From the molten sand, he blew a small pear-shaped glass pearl, trapping the fireproof roll of his Vivre Card inside it. Then he once again took Fuu's right hand and delicately tied up the pearl to her leather bracelet.

TILT. Fuu lifted the bracelet at the level of her eyes, quite puzzled. The new translucent pendant was now floating of a few centimetres, pointing in the direction of Ace, lifted up by the power of the Vivre Card.

At seeing her graciously arch an eyebrow of perplexity, Ace seemed momentarily struck with realisation and felt himself obliged to say something.

"A thank you gift." he stated in a casual tone, but with a confused smile quite difficult to interpret.

"Th… thank… you!" Fuu uttered with difficulty, both surprised and somehow embarrassed.

"Oh, Ace, so you do know that girls like jewels?" Luffy whistled with admiration, thinking: _Wow, Ace is really smart, as expected!_

Luffy was still remembering some bits and pieces of – and more especially the ones dealing with money, treasures and jewels – the lessons about what girls like and about romantic situations that the Shoujo-expert Fuu had been trying to teach him on the Thousand Sunny, the previous time she had visited them, hoping at the time to help him make some progress in his relationship with Nami.

"Shishishi, and do you know what it means for a girl? When a guy offers a jewel to a girl in particular, then it can be like a love confession!" Luffy said in a recollection tone, a large innocent grin on his face, his hands casually behind his head. "You know, like telling her that she is special and that the jewel is linking them together…"

TILT. TILT. SHIN.

TILT. Had realized Ace, and the comment had struck him with even more force at hearing it from Luffy of all people, when he himself hadn't thought twice about spontaneously giving such a gift.

TILT. Had similarly realized Fuu, blushing without realizing it and precipitately hiding her right hand – with the bracelet – under her back in quite a fruitless tentative to brush the matter away in the process.

SHIN. A heavy silence had fallen on the rest of the troop.

_God bless the simple-minded… _thought simultaneously all the pirates present at the scene, shared between their compassion for the unknown girl whose sudden blush was contrasting violently with the white of her wings, their silent cheers for Hiken no Ace who had hastily turned away with an embarrassed look, and their criticism for Mugiwara who had managed to let slip such an embarrassing comment without realizing the least all the insinuations it implied…

"So… You're Fuu-san, one of Luffy-kun's nakamas. I am Jinbei." suddenly introduced himself the fish-man, speaking for the first time since Fuu and Ace had met them, for thinking that he'd better help the two of them out of this embarrassing situation.

"So you're a Devil Fruit user, little girl? These wings, is it a Zoan ability?" Ivankov asked, his powerful voice cutting through the thick silence still remaining after the awkward scene.

"Hum, no… Not really." Fuu managed to articulate, her embarrassment slowly fading away.

Fuu was now feeling very grateful for Jinbei and Iva, but she was still hesitating to speak about her power, for various reason ranging to the fact she didn't even understand it herself to philosophical considerations about whimsical absolute powers.

"Well, hum… that power is kind of new for me, so… well…" Fuu said, a bit confused about what to say.

_I just can't tell them that this Fruit came straight from the endless imagination of my crazy little author of a brother… I kind of already guess the disastrous consequences if the world learned about this fearsome power… Power, in short, absolute…_

"Yeah, Fuu, when did you get this power? You should have shown it to me earlier! It's so cool!" Luffy exclaimed, his eyes in star-mode once again, while examining her wings from every angle.

"Hey, she's one of your nakamas and you don't even know about her power?" Ace teased with a superior expression, attacking Luffy's head in an arm-lock, to get a little revenge on the embarrassment his little brother had just inflected him.

"Buuuut… Fuu didn't have any power the last time I saw her!" Luffy pouted with a sulking tone, "Why didn't you tell me that you've eaten a Devil Fruit too, Fuu?"

Ace had let his elastic brother out of his grip, and Luffy was now squatting on the ground, starting to draw small circles with his finger on the dust on the floor.

"We're nakamas, right? Yet you left us, and you didn't tell me about your power…" Luffy sulked with a pitiful look.

"Ah, well… I'm really sorry, Luffy, for having left the Thousand Sunny like that… And also, I am sorry for not having had the occasion to come and visit you sooner…" Fuu apologized in a faint smile, a bit amused by the expression of her former captain, but regrets chocking her.

"Hum… So she's not really your nakama, in the end…" Ace said with a smirk, "Then it's no problem if I steal her from you, right?"

TILT. Fuu's eyes widened a bit at the declaration and she felt blood rush to her cheeks, but before she could retort something, Luffy had answered with a deliberate 'No way' and was arguing he wouldn't give her to him, especially now that she had an 'interesting' ability such as wings.

Fuu was being blasé, Luffy was being stubborn, Ace was being teasing, and the rest of the pirates gathered around them could find no opportunity to give their opinion on the matter.

_What did Mugiwara come for exactly? _sighed the whole of them at seeing Luffy having lost sight of the fact that they were currently standing on a battlefield, and unfortunately having dragged into his my-pace behaviour his brother and their mysterious angel-winged nakama.

But as if to remind them of the dangerous place they were right now, a lance of magma flew in their direction, followed by far by Admiral Akainu. The report of Hiken no Ace's actual location had finally reached the higher-ups, and reinforcement was arriving to support the normal soldiers which had all been sent to the ground when they were attacking Luffy's allies.

TILT. The three interlocutors eyes caught sight of the attack.

SCHLING. Fuu spread her light barrier once more, instinctively extending her protective shield to Luffy, Ace, Jinbei, Iva and the numerous pirates around them, even before Ace could cast one of his own defensive barriers.

The magma pillar crashed on the light shield and was entirely stopped before reaching any of them, to Akainu bitter notice, but her exploit came with a price…

ZAAA.

"Kyaa…" Fuu whimpered in a groan of pain at feeling some strange force tearing her from the inside.

_Ugh… _gulped she down as she was still strengthening the shield in half a dome of light, tightly closed under their feet in case the magma would try the underground way.

But despite her efforts to hide the pain, it became clear that the power of the Hoshi Hoshi no Mi was now approaching its limits: Fuu wide wings suddenly dispersed in a crackle of torn feathers, and several cuts appeared on her skin, like so many wounds which were absorbing the deflected hit.

Ace had turned back at the scream, and he rushed back to kneel down near Fuu, along with Luffy and Ivankov who had also been alarmed by her half-collapsing to the ground.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ace shouted while carefully placing his hand on her shoulder.

Fuu had fallen on her knees, pinning her right hand on the floor in an attempt not to collapse completely, and was still struggling not to scream because of the pain caused by the slashes which had opened into her flesh.

_Pant, pant… I think I am reaching my limit… Exhaustion is catching up on me, and my vision is getting more and more blurry… I do not have as much energy as Shounen manga's heroes like Luffy or Ace… That power is really a double-edged sword…_

_Huh…? These… these black marks…_

Several marks brushed with black ink had appeared on Fuu's right forearm, following the post scriptum of her brother relating to the Hoshi Hoshi no Mi.

_Ni… nine marks… Is that the countdown of the use of my power…? Seems like my stupid brother thought about something useful, for once…_

_Hum… I guess that means I don't have time anymore, I must do something to help them getting out of here. And quickly…_

"Fuu! Fuu, is that also the power of your Devil Fruit? That shield is coming out of your power? Is it because of that you're hurt? Are you okay? Are you feeling okay?" Luffy was asking at full speed, his shouts slowly bring Fuu's focus back on the ones who were surrounding her.

Luffy's face was torn between surprise, excitement, and concern, a show which under normal circumstances would have been a very funny performance, but now wasn't the right time for that.

"She's not controlling her Devil Fruit properly, it seems…" Ace answered, quite concerned, while a nearby pirate knowledgeable in first aid was battling with Fuu to try and examine her cuts, "And never minding that, it's also a weird power: I've never seen something like that… She used it to dodge Sengoku, and it also resisted Jiji's punch, which is already quite an exploit… Then she made these wings appear, and that floating golden light too… Oh, and she healed me with a ki…"

TILT. Ace stopped what he was saying, struck with self-consciousness, and shot a quick glance at Fuu, afraid that she would hit him again but nothing came…

Panting as she was, collapsed on her knees on the floor, her eyes closed in an ultimate effort to keep her focus on the shield that was still receiving pillars of magma, new cuts appearing on her skin, Fuu wasn't even listening to the conversation anymore.

A strange tingling feeling chimed in Ace's chest, a mixture of paradoxical disappointment and worry, peppered with self-reproach at not knowing what he was thinking. Realizing that the peaceful respite had ended – or rather had only existed on this battlefield at the expense of a girl now severely hurt – Ace clenched his fists and skipped the rest of his presentation.

"Luffy! She's your nakama, right? You should now something! …I really have no idea what kind of power it can be. I've never seen that on Zoan's users, or Logia or anyone! The worst part being that she is getting more and more exhausted each time she uses it… and now her shield is hurting her for any hit she's deflecting…" Ace screeched, with very alarmed looks for the girl near him, feeling utterly aggravated at seeing more and more bloody cuts opening on her skin.

"No… I really don't know…" Luffy muttered with a worried look, before looking away towards the expeditor of the magma attacks and sending a punch in his hand with determination, "But we can just destroy the bastard who is attacking her!"

"I understand your feelings, Luffy-kun, but now that we have Ace-san, we should rather leave!" Jinbei said while placing himself between him and his intended target.

TILT. Luffy seemed puzzled and finally softly hit with his fist into his flat hand at recollecting something.

"Ah, the plan!" he exclaimed at remembering that their strategy had always been to save Ace and then to make their way back to the ships as soon as possible to escape the War.

CRASH. Everyone else crashed at seeing him only remembering now.

Jinbei nodded and gave a shared glance for the girl who was getting back to her feet with the med-pirate as well as she could – a girl who had threw disarray in their plan when suddenly and so easily landing in front of them with Ace, as if it had been the most natural meeting in the world.

"Being able to leave this place is already going to be difficult, Luffy-kun… but it's the best alternative for everyone!" the former Shichibukai said with a very serious tone.

Fuu gazed at the fishman with a perturbed and regretful expression, biting her inferior lips at realizing she had been the cause of the problem.

_He's right, he's perfectly right! I just moved Ace from the execution platform right to the middle of the battlefield… How useless!_

_And worse, I let them become choice targets by letting them dragging here for some chit-chat… How stupid of me! My goal was to protect Ace… And Luffy must be saved too, if not everything would have been for nothing…_

At seeing everyone get in formation to run across the plaza towards the ships in the most effective way, Fuu tightened her fists in frustration at guessing she would only hinder them in their flight, as both her legs and wings were failing her.

_Only one wish left… The shield…? Or maybe I can just do something worth it with it… They need to escape, right? In the end, it all comes down to making them leave this battlefield… so then, I have a better way to help…_

"I can… I can help you… to leave this island…" Fuu panted, interrupting everyone's thoughts.

"What are you talking about, little girl?" Ivankov exclaimed, quite angry and perplexed at the same time, "You're in no shape for helping us! I don't know what your Devil Fruit power is, but based on what Ace-boy told us and what I can see, it seems serious… So let the boys battle our way out of here!"

"I can… send you… out of here… instantly!" Fuu declared, fighting to regain her balance and stand straight, while looking straight into Luffy's and Ace's eyes.

_What did she just say? _thought simultaneously all the people present, their faces stroke with disbelief.

"… Sorry, but I can't let you do that!" Ace said, the tone of his voice dead serious, "My nakamas are still here. They all came to take part in this huge battle to help me. There is no way I can just ignore their efforts and run away alone."

Ace was looking at Fuu with sad but determined eyes, torn by his responsibility for his nakamas and the refusal he had just gave her.

"Ooh, Ace-boy, if this little girl can help you out, Mugi-boy and you, you must leave! Sengoku will never let escape the sons of Gold Roger and Dragon alive… So fly away!" Ivankov insisted with a convinced pose.

"Once you will be safe, Ace-san, Oyaji-san will be able to withdraw. And I will assist him personally, do not worry about that!" Jinbei added with a very serious tone.

But Ace's eyes were saying that he won't change his mind. It was clear that he intended to fight along with his nakamas, and won't stand to leave any of them behind.

_As stubborn as his brother, damn it… _Fuu inwardly cursed while repressing a faint smile at the thought.

"Then I will…" she began while breathing in deeply to stand her head tall and as unwavering as her inner resolution was, "I will make you ALL leave this island!"

SHIN. Silence fell.

Fuu was staring at the assistance with obstinate eyes.

Luffy and Ace didn't show any surprise at this declaration, but the rest of escapees of Impel Down were frozen in shock. Even Jinbei had emitted a groan of astonishment. Iva seemed to disagree, observing the state of exhaustion Fuu was already in with objective eyes, but didn't say anything, knowing that the matter at stake was too important to neglect such opportunity.

_I have only one wish left, but I hope it will have to be sufficient to send hundreds of pirates somewhere else on Grand Line!_

_On Grand Line, huh… The only landmark I know about is the Thousand Sunny… But if Luffy is here alone, it means the ship and everyone else must be far away from here, right now… So even if a whole fleet of pirates ends up there, they will have time to escape the Marines, afterwards… I hope…_

"Luffy, I will try and teleport you where the Sunny is. And I'll teleport all the other crews near you, with their ships and nakamas, WhiteBeard included. If I manage to do that, you should have enough time to find a safe place, aren't you?" Fuu asked, still breathing hard but trying her best not to show it so that her offer could sound more valid.

"WHAAATTTT?" shouted simultaneously all the pirates present, their jaws having fallen of at least thirty centimetres, and their eyes bulging out of their sockets. _Impossible, no Devil Fruit as the power to do THAT?_

"That would be so COOL!" Luffy approved, jumping with cheerfulness, "And lucky lucky: I needed to meet with everyone else on the Thousand Sunny!"

"Send them my regards, will you…" Fuu requested with a melancholic smile, adding for herself: _If I hadn't been erased from his memory at that time…_

"Wait a minute!" Ace realized, having still trouble to believe the first part of her offer but perfectly understanding the implied meaning of the second part of it, "What do you mean 'your regards'… You're coming with us, right?"

He grabbed Fuu by her shoulders, forcing her to look his way.

"Huh?" Fuu staggered under Ace's grip, "Ah, hum… I think it may be possible for me to leave with you all, but it's safer if I stay here until I can be certain everyone has left! Everything will be fine, don't worry!" answered she with a smile she wanted reassuring.

_Besides, I don't have any more time left… My energy in this world will dry out completely after this teleportation – that I'd better not fail… So leaving with you wouldn't make a difference… I'd rather be useful until the end…_

"I hope you're kidding?" Ace thundered, seriously losing his temper at the plan, but even more at her reaction, "You want to stay behind, alone, in the heart of Marine Ford? No way in hell! I forbid you to do this teleportation!"

"Calm down, Ace-boy!" Ivankov said, not having been a key strategist for the Revolutionary Army for nothing and having quickly caught onto the fact that if such a power was indeed available, they should definitely make use of it, instead of try and cross back the vast frozen bay – passing by the Pacifistas and other opponents – to reach a ship not confined in the ice, "She can perfectly catch up with us after being sure no one is left here! You have witnessed the power of her light shield: even alone she will be safe!"

Of course, Ivankov didn't add what he could easily deduce when he was looking at the mysterious girl's condition: that her constitution won't stand such a tremendous use of her power, regardless of what her Devil Fruit could be…

_Well, since that little girl seems determined to hide it from the both of them, I won't trample on her efforts! _Ivankov decided but a slightly concerned glance.

But the Revolutionary's advice didn't help Ace cool down. There was something in Fuu's amber eyes which contradicted her reassuring words… something like resignation… something like what he had felt when deciding he would accept everything that would come his way, be it a helpful hand or a doomed fate…

His hands tightened on her shoulders, finding in the contact of her freezing skin something strengthening his bad feeling.

"Luffy, tell her…" Ace said with a calm yet furious tone, and a desperate look for his younger brother, at feeling that she or Ivankov or Jinbei won't listen to him, " Ask her to leave with us… She's your nakama, so she's leaving with you, right?"

TILT. Luffy was confused. He trusted Fuu when she was saying that she will catch up with them, but Ace now sowed doubt in his mind.

"Ace-boy/Ace-san!" exclaimed Ivankov and Jinbei with a strong tone of disapproval.

The situation didn't have time to reach a standstill as a huge fist of magma was sent in direction of their group – Admiral Akainu having finally managed to get through the crowd of opponents who were obstructing his way, mainly some WhiteBeard's Commanders who had also realized Ace's actual location and were supporting their escape.

ZAAA. The lava clashed against Fuu's shield and evaporated in a crackle of light and flames, lacerating Fuu's body with numerous slashes, under the horrified expression of Ace who was still holding her by her shoulders.

Everyone run towards the both of them, appalled to notice that, if Fuu's shield was still there, herself was had collapsed on the ground, despite Ace trying to support her.

_Ouch… That burns, that burns so much… I feel like my body is going to dislocate… It hurts… _Fuu thought – or rather sensed deep in her flesh, her body too much shaken to even scream out of pain.

_But I can't just faint now: I need to send them in safety before this Hoshi Hoshi power fades away and they must face this magma monster… I don't have any more time… I need to focus… to create teleportation circles for each pirate present here… Especially Ace, and Luffy, and Ace's nakamas, and his father WhiteBeard… I must hurry! If I receive another attack like this, I will pass out from pain before having the opportunity to help them…_

"Ace…" Fuu began, out of breathe when softly pushing away his hands from her, "I'm going to begin the spell of teleportation. I promise you that your father and all your nakamas will arrive near you, so please don't worry…"

TILT. Ace let his hands fall Fuu's shoulders, unable to answer.

He understood perfectly that she was avoiding on purpose the question of whether or not SHE will run away with them.

In his mind were fighting two considerations, two antagonist feelings: the future relief of knowing his nakamas – all his nakamas – safe from this deadly war, versus the mortifying anxiety of ignoring if she will be safe too – and where.

His eyes fell under the shadow of his hair, and he bit his own lips until it bled, commanding his own heart to put some order in his priorities, and care more about the conflict he had provoked rather than about a mysterious girl he had barely met.

Fuu tried to give him a comforting smile, making him feel even more aggravated.

_As if I was the one needing comfort right now, tsk… _he screeched with a bitter taste spreading in his mouth, _Why is everyone worrying like that for me? Why is everyone trying so hard… for me…? Damn it!_

He averted his eyes and slowly stood up, resigned.

Fuu, still squatting on the floor, closed her eyes and placed her palms against the ground, focusing on how to integrate each pirate present on this island in her wish.

FLOOW. A wave a blue light started spreading from her hands, flowing on the stone ground of the Plaza, and soon all over Marine Ford – its battlefield, the pirate ships, the frozen bay – all was shining with a faint blue paving.

Akainu, realizing that the escapees were trying something big, attacked twice harder but couldn't even reach the light shield for finding some of WhiteBeard's Commanders to hinder his way.

_Okay… I think… I have… all of them… _Fuu paused while mentally picturing in her mind all the people involved in her wish, _When touched once by this blue light, they will certainly be teleported, even if they are fighting in mid-air or on the sea… I feel like each of them has his proper frequency that I need to memorize before including them in my spell… Honestly, RPGs are a pleasure in comparison!_

_That's really a lot of people… without counting the ships on top of that… why did I include the ships, tsk…?! Well, Luffy had told me how important their previous boat was for them, so I guess they count as nakamas too, for pirates…_

Fuu slowly reopened her eyes to tell everyone that the spell was ready, trying her best to forget the thumbing pain in her right forearm, where had been carved not one but two marks counting down the use of her Hoshi Hoshi no Mi, chiefly bypassing the original limit…

Amidst her blurry vision, she suddenly noticed that Ace was walking decidedly towards the frontier of the shield, his fist already in flames, his eyes charged with murderous intents, while Iva and Jinbei were apparently trying very hard to reason him…

_Ace? Hey, the… the protective barrier! I made it to deflect all attacks, even elemental ones, and not to let in anyone… but… Ace is a Logia user… if he forces his way through it from inside, the shield will shatter… and if I release it now, my energy will vanish before I can cast the teleportation…_

Ace had forced his way at the very limit of the light shield, his face hardened with anger.

_Why? Why does he want to leave the barrier? No… the… the spell… KOF, KOF! Huh? The taste… the taste of blood?_

Fuu just spitted on the floor the red liquid tasting like salt and rust which had invaded her mouth, under the pressure of Ace trying to get through the light shield.

"Ace!" Fuu shouted desperately, out of breath, stopping Ace at a few centimetres from the frontier of the barrier.

Ace glanced at Fuu with a very troubled look, but soon turned back to glare angrily at the one standing behind the shield: Admiral Akainu.

"Lu… Luffy, what's happening? Why is Ace…?" Fuu asked, paining to articulate each word.

"This bastard of Red Inu just insulted WhiteBeard-Ossan!" Luffy explained, fury tangible in the tone of his voice.

"What?" Fuu exclaimed, her eyes wandering from Ace to the Admiral with a discomposed expression.

"He said that escaping after getting Ace-san back was a coward strategy, and that the WhiteBeard's Pirates were just a bunch of good-for-nothings… that WhiteBeard himself is a failure as a pirate, for not having succeeded in becoming the Pirate King in the past, nor being able to build up a new era today…" Jinbei said, quite angry too but knowing from experience that it was better not to answer baiting when victory is nearby.

"Ace-boy, I know that WhiteBeard is presently fighting with all his forces to help us escape. I know he's your father and you admire him… I admire him too but if you give in to Akainu's provocation and fight with him right now, you will destroy all of his efforts!" Ivankov said, keeping Ace from throwing himself at Admiral Akainu, while the Marine was still ranting on with an arrogant and icy smile on the other side of the barrier.

"I will go knock him out!" Luffy shouted, preparing a Gear Second.

"NO!" Fuu screamed, as loud as she could, stopping Ace and Luffy in their charge.

They both turned back to look at Fuu, who was panting heavily on the blue-gleaming floor, her expression desperate but her eyes strongly pinned in theirs.

_Wh… what are they saying…?! They want to fight… FIGHT?! NOW?!_

"I… I finished preparing… the spell. You can… leave… with WhiteBeard, with everyone… you can…" Fuu mumbled, fatigue making each word weight a ton in her lips.

Ace and Luffy stared at each other, their eyes indomitable, nodded once and walked slowly towards Fuu, their fury somewhat contained.

Ace squatted down to look at Fuu in her eyes.

"Sorry!" he said in an embarrassed smile before his eyes turned dark again, "But I can't just let this bastard go after he insulted the person I respect the most!"

"That's our pirates' honour!" Luffy added, punching in his own hand.

Fuu looked at Jinbei then Iva, who were both glaring at Akainu too, then towards the duels between pirates and Marines happening in the whole bay. All these pirates who had travelled until here, guided by WhiteBeard, to protect their nakama… All these pirates who respected deeply their captain and were calling him "father"… All these pirates fighting for a new era, faithful to their code of honour…

_The person I respect the most… Of course… I would have gone and smash him too… whoever it would be! Without caring about consequences! Just to make him regret insulting someone precious to me… Even if I could die, I wouldn't let such a bastard go…_

Fuu raised her head and looked at them both, smiling softly and with resolve, wanting to answer them that she understood and to wish them good luck, but her words choked in her throat.

_Stupid… Shounen manga heroes… with their all-important fights, tsk…_

And despite her resignation, tears piled up in her eyes, pouring slowly on her smile.

"I am really sorry…" Ace said, tenderly wiping off Fuu's tears with the back of his hand, a bit uneasy but his determination unmovable, "Hum…I think I'll be obliged to postpone my plan to steal you from Luffy."

_Baka… What do you mean, stealing me to Luffy… You won't even be able to remember me… for sure, you won't… But… but still, good luck!_

Ace caressed her hair with a loving smile and stood up to catch up with Luffy. The latter made a thumb up to say they were going to win, and Fuu answered them a confident smile, through her tears and the blur of her fatigue.

Then the two brothers dashed towards the frontier of the light shield to beat up the Admiral, forcing their way through the protective screen. Instantaneously, the light dome shattered, burning out the last cartridges of the Hoshi Hoshi no Mi power. Jinbei could only catch Fuu has she was falling unconscious on the floor.

All the magical energy of the teleportation spell evaporated in a cloud of light bubbles, like a swarm of blue fireflies…

_They will do it! They will win… definitely…! They are two heroes of One Piece after all; they can't just die here… Even without my help, they will survive, easily… Definitely! They… will…_

The power of her Devil Fruit having reached its limits, Fuu was slowly disintegrating into stardust, in the arms of Jinbei, powerless, and the horrified expression of Iva.

Far from them, Ace and Luffy had already started their fight against Admiral Akainu.

* * *

**REALITY**

BADABAM.

Fuu had fallen from her bed, after jumping out of her sleep, in tears. She tried to stand up to run towards the study, but fell back loudly on the floor.

_Ouch! Damn it, my legs are not holding me anymore… my body aches too, and…_

_Ugh… I feel like throwing up… What's with this weird after-effect to the conjuring trick of my stupid brother? I can accept that my tears can flow during my sleep but…_

_I'm really going to kill him! I'm going to slaughter him but… later! Not now because there's something more urgent…_

Holding on tightly to the walls and the door handle, fighting her best to keep her balance, Fuu run through the corridor and raced downstairs. Not caring at all about the time it was, or her queasiness, or the strangeness of the situation, her mind was filled with only one thing: the outcome of the battle of Marine Ford.

She rushed to the study, seizing the wheelchair, switched on the computer, stamping her feet with impatience, clicked a couple of times, and froze suddenly!

_The new chapter of One Piece…_

Her eyes riveted on the title page, Fuu silently busted into tears.

"Sorry…" interrupted a troubled voice behind her, "I thought that, if I could send you there, it would change something…" hesitated Clow, "But in the end, when a real person gets out of that world, the story resumes its course. The actions of the inserted character get erased from the scenario and the work of Oda-Sensei continues."

His explanations were lost in a sigh of resignation.

Clow shot a sly look at her sister, and his lips opened once more, hoping to give relief to the tears shining along Fuu's cheeks.

"Sorry… I… I'm just an author of fan-fictions, you know… and still… I still sent you there, even knowing that… I mean… I know that… that you always take things to heart… that you always get involved too deeply… and… and that you easily become attached to people… but… but I was hoping that… maybe…" exposed Clow before quieting down, realizing that excuses were useless and that whatever he could say, his sister couldn't hear him anymore…

The stream of tears got bigger and bigger in Fuu's eyes, silently but steadily.

She burrowed her face in her arms, her trembling hands strongly clenched on the desk, as an ultimate hope for not losing contact with reality while countless tears were rolling down on her lap, drowning everything into hopelessness…

Her brother could only look over her in silence, unable to do anything else, and fearing even to touch her in case she might break from despair.

GLING. At Fuu's right wrist was sadly tingling a bracelet, a leather bracelet decorated with – among others – a glass pearl filled with black ashes.

On the computer screen, one could read "One Piece, Chapter 574: The Death of Portgas D. Ace"


	6. Story III, Paradox, Shadow

_What happens when an author of fan-fictions wants to change the story out of affection for his sister, but that boundaries between universes don't easily let the Big Book of History write itself anew?_

* * *

**Original Happening Date: **February to April 2010**  
Universe:** Alternative Universe**  
Themes: **Adventure, Friendship, Romance  
**Pairings:** AceXOC  
**Number of Chapters: **4 + 2 omake **/ Words:**23700 + 9700  
**Rating:**T  
**Warnings: **Spoilers Marine Ford Arc  
**Credits:** All characters beside the Outsiders Characters Fuu & Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and of the respective owners of its copyrights across the world.  
**Guest Star:** Clow, alias Clowsama (.net/u/1552380/Clowsama)

* * *

**THE DAY THE TIME OF ONE PIECE GOT BENDED, MAKING THE STORY REWRITE ITSELF**

**…**

The Shadows of the Heart

…

**REALITY**

GLING. Fuu was staring blankly at the bracelet on her right wrist, whose pendants were glittering under the sunset lights of a cold winter.

Every time her eyes were wandering on the woven bonds of leather, she was thinking about her nakamas of One Piece and the adventures on Grand Line where she had been sent by force, twice already, but which last visit had marked her more deeply than the other.

_Hum…_

_Clow didn't speak to me about it since the chaos caused when he sent me at Ace's execution, but… _

GLING. Fuu was now staring at the water-drop-shaped pearl of glass filled with the ashes of what had been the Vivre Card of Portgas D. Ace.

And as every time her eyes were wandering on the crystal, she started crying, silently, restlessly.

_Sob… Stupid… Why am I crying? How is that supposed to help? I'd rather try and remember the good times… After all, I am sure their story is filled with comical adventures and fantastic battles… as Clow had always told me… Isn't One Piece supposed to be a fun manga to start with? Sob sob…_

Fuu's eyes wandered on the gloomy greyish sky of the low sunset of this end of February, as if hoping to find an answer in the low clouds scattered at the horizon.

_I suppose it is…_

_Hum… Despite all that happened, I guess I should at least read the chapters of One Piece… After all, if I read all of this, I will have the feeling that time can be brought back, huh…? All these tomes… All these adventures… Just the time of some chapters, the story will kind of stop, right…?_

_So I should be able to forget that what follows only brings death and despair, huh… If I go back into the past sufficiently, I will be able to fill my heart with memories that will never get erased, is it not? Is it…?_

Fuu slowly rose and opened the door of her room. She crossed the corridor and went downstairs to the study, staring at the black screen of the computer she had not dared to switch on for a week for still being traumatized by the last news she had received from it, a week before, under the shape of the digital cover page of a manga chapter.

Long seconds ticked in silence, leaving only the faint last rays of sunlight falling on the desk and finally disappearing as the winter sun was definitely setting.

Fuu switched on the computer.

She pulled the chair, slowly but determinedly, having finally found some resolve but still depressed, and loaded the website she was looking for.

The grin of a stupid reckless pirate-king-to-be on a double manga page made her smile faintly, and she began to read.

Time flew… inexorably…

Despite her tiredness, her eyes couldn't get off from the screen, and Fuu kept on burning deep into her memory the adventures of her nakamas from One Piece, one by one, story by story, silently, some chocked laughter sometimes dying in her tears.

The winter moon was crossing the sky behind the window of the study…

Hours were flying by… unrelenting… and Fuu finally collapsed, her eyelids and her heart heavy as lead.

Then, a hand silently passed above the sleeping face of Fuu, and started to type of the keyboard of the computer… slowly… hesitantly… but without stopping… gradually reanimating the pages of the big book of History…

* * *

…

* * *

_Hum... The sound of the wind… and the sound of the rain, falling… And a strange sound, within the rain, as if someone was crying…_

Fuu opened her eyes, raising her head from her arms she had used as a pillow on her brother's desk, having falling asleep in the middle of her reading, a pile of notebooks and newspapers wavering dangerously as she rose from the table.

Amidst the only room filled with books, parchments and quill pens, she let her eyes reach the trembling window, behind which the trees were rustling under a mid-spring tempest.

She slowly got up on her feet and walked towards the glass panel, listening in a daze to the sounds lost into the night.

_It really sounds like tears… tears drown in the rain… Could there be someone out there, so late at night and in the storm?_

Fuu walked to the door, opened it with some hesitation, and stared at the night from the entrance.

On the left, the wash-off of the waves on the rocky headland on which the house was built was mixing with the sound of the rain.

At some distance on the front, moving lights were testifying of some agitation, and bustling noises were coming from the village: the kind of frantic tension which usually came from some Marines or bounty hunters.

_Marine troops…? _thought Fuu at hearing the unclear mutters of soldiers answering to some loud orders,_ Who can they be doing here, on this small island so far away from the main roads of Grand Line?_

Fuu slowly turned back, glancing from left to right with a puzzled look, still not finding any answer to the sobbing sound she had heard a bit before in the distant noisy ruckus from the village.

And when her eyes finally screened the path to the underneath little creek, she noticed some footsteps on the wet sandy ground. The trail was leading to the beach under the house in which Fuu and her brother were living, the last house of the village – and also of the island – and the closest to the coast.

_Out there…? But there is nothing except the sea… not the kind of place where you would have a walk so late at night, and under such weather…_

_Besides, considering the size of the footsteps, it looks like their owner is a child… I hope he or she is not lost…_

So Fuu closed the door with a concerned expression, tightened her housecoat around herself, and went out in the night to follow the small footsteps.

They finally lead her down to the creek.

She spotted with some difficulty a little form squatted on the sand against the rocks of the promontory, and upon coming closer, the distinguished a black-haired little girl, around eight, sitting there with her arms around her knees.

"Hi…" whispered Fuu in a calm and low voice when coming to squat down in front of the child.

But when she approached, the little girl suddenly left her defensive protection and glared at her, her expression a mixture of fear and panic.

Fuu was taken slightly aback, baffled to see the reaction of the child, and long seconds flew by under the falling rain.

"Are you lost…? You should come and take shelter inside. And then we will look for your parents, okay…?" finally proposed Fuu to the child with a warm smile, but the little girl stayed still, her body tense as if ready to fight, and her eyes still pinned on Fuu, her expression even more rebel than the tempest raging over their heads.

_Is she too much frightened by the storm to speak…?_

"Come on, you have no reason to be afraid…" added Fuu with a joking smile.

_Or did she run away from home and hid here to sulk…? She seems quite stubborn and annoyed by me… _thought she with shared feeling for the little girl in front of her who wasn't answering her.

"Can I… touch you?" added Fuu while reaching out her hand towards the child, thinking that it might reassure the little girl.

The child still made no answer, but instead, a third hand suddenly grew from her shoulder and slapped away Fuu's hand, before disappearing as it had appeared, while the little girl was still staring at the sand with the same indomitable eyes filled with resentment.

_She can… multiply the members of her body? _tilted Fuu, blinking a bit at the demonstration.

"Are you a Devil Fruit user?" asked she with a very neutral tone, looking at the child straight in her eyes.

Instead of an answer, the little girl just grew more panicked and some tears meddled with the rain drops that were rolling along her face, and she tried to step – crawl – back outside of Fuu's reach.

_She's… afraid? … and apparently on the binge of nerve-break…_

"Well… Then I guess that makes us nakamas, since we are both Devil Fruit users." decided to hint Fuu with a good-natured smile, holding out her hand to the little girl as a greeting, but without trying to touch her anymore by fear of frightening her more than she already was.

The child expression seemed to soften a little, but stayed alert, surprise meddling with suspicion in her blue eyes.

"Do you want to come inside? We could dry ourselves and drink something hot... and besides, staying so close to sea water is not very healthy for you or for me…" offered Fuu with a knowing glance for the waves washing off nearby them and which had stopped the child from crawling back further.

"You… really have the power of a Devil Fruit?" suddenly asked the little girl, speaking for the time since they had met, with a voice where were breaking envy and fear – envy to believe but fear to be betrayed.

Fuu blinked a couple of time, surprised by the question and also by the tone with which such question had been asked.

_Hum… So this is the reason why she is so frighten… I guess the fact that normal people are afraid of Devil Fruit users and reject them vehemently must be hard for a child…_

And with a small smile, silently, confidently, Fuu made a graceful circle above their two heads with her hand, activating her 'spell' in the process.

SCHLING. A dome of mild light softly emerged from her gesture, and the new cupola acted as a screen between the two of them and the surrounding storm, like a shining umbrella whose gentle warmness enlighten a new light in the little girl's mesmerized eyes, starting to dry off her tears.

"You… you are really planning on letting me into your home?" asked she, still suspicious but hope sprinkling unconsciously in her eyes.

"Of course." answered Fuu, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, "What kind of person would let someone out in a storm like this?"

"Even… if I tell you that I am wanted?" cried the little girl while biting her lips to try and hold up the tears starting to well up in her eyes again.

"Hum…" softly laughed Fuu, "Then I will tell you that my precious nakamas are ALL wanted by the Marines, and that their bountys never stop to climb up. So I'm sure having a little girl as a guest is going to change anything to my situation, don't you think?"

_Indeed, hihihi… Just talking about Luffy and Ace, that almost reaches a BILLION of Berrys, and the WHOLE of the Marine hot on their heels… I can't really imagine how a child who can't be more than nine can compete with that! Really…_

"If you want, I can show you their bounty posters. Are you coming?" proposed again Fuu, her hand still hold out towards the little girl, who silently accepted it this time, and let Fuu lead her inside the house.

When they were in, Fuu took a towel from the wardrobe and hold it out to her guest, before rolling another one around her own neck to prevent the water dropping from her hair-curls from falling into the hot cocoa she had started preparing.

And as the milk was slowly warming up in the pot, she took out from under a pile of books entitled 'Chronicles of One Piece' a worn out wanted poster featuring a man wearing an orange cow-boy hat, and added it to the bundle of wanted posters she had retrieved from a newly-received newspaper dated 'April' – and which had had the advantage of lying on the top of the pile.

"Here they are, hihihi…" smiled she when proudly presenting the whole to the little girl, especially insisting on the amounts written under the wanted posters of Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro and Portgas D. Ace.

_Since the impressive break-out of Luffy from d'Impel Down, and the rescue in extremis of Ace from his execution platform, I had thought that their bountys would have had skyrocketed and that they would had put a bounty on my head for having helped them, but nothing has leaked out from the World Government, in the end… And that is starting to make several months since then…_

_Hum… There must be something we don't know that had happened at the same time… But something more important that the survival of the son of Gol D. Roger and the escape of the son of the Revolutionary Dragon, what the hell could that be… ? Besides, my memories from before Marine Ford are in a complete blur, somehow… I can't even point at what is wrong, but I feel like something is definitely missing…_

_My brother seems to avoid the topic but I am sure he knows, be it for the Marine reaction or the rest… After all, that's typically the kind of information his life is all about, so I should be able to make him speak… when he will finally be back from travelling, that is…_

"By the way, my name is Fuu. I am leaving here for now to help my brother who is an historian. His job is to uncover and recount the stories of pirates who seek the One Piece. But as you can see, all my friends and nakamas are right now sailing across other parts of Grand Line… and not in a very discreet fashion!" said Fuu with a conniving smile for the newspapers piling up on the study desk and whose headlines had been quite heated up by exploits of the super-rookie Mugiwara.

The pot started steaming, and Fuu hurried to the kitchen to pour its content in two cups before bringing them back and placing them on the two sides of the small dining table in the centre of the room, inviting with a smile her guest to sit down.

The child silently took a sit, and hesitated a couple of second in front of the drink, waiting for Fuu to sit down in turn and have a sip of hers before finally trusting the warm content of the cup and bringing it to her lips.

On her side, Fuu was gazing at the black-haired little girl with shared feelings. She watched as her interlocutor was gazing ardently at the pile of the wanted posters, and more especially at the top one which was showing off the large grin of an idiot wearing a straw hat and which bounty wasn't especially matching the innocent smile on the picture.

"As I told you, they are wanted pirates… but they are still the most important people for me in this world!" declared Fuu with a melancholic smile for the two posters of the top, while the little girl was drinking her cocoa without letting Fuu out of her sight, as if measuring her up too.

"But I'm wanted too." riposted the little girl with an indomitable tone, her eyes tainted with bitterness, "If I stay, the Marines will come, and you will hand me over to them. That's why you're inviting me to your house…"

TILT. A little vein of vexation appeared on Fuu's temple, and she started regretting having been so nice with the girl while she would obviously be wary of people being nice to her before betraying her.

"Ooh … You are quite bold to dare and think I would do such a thing…" counterattacked Fuu, deeply vexed by the comment, "Not everyone is like the people you've met up until now!"

"But all adults are like that! They all want the money of my bounty, even if they are nice at the beginning, it's only to have the prize after…" cried the child, on the defensive.

TILT. The second statement made a second vein appear on Fuu's temple, this time of annoyance at being put in the same basket as the rest of people with low moral values.

"Well, for your information, that's not only adults: all human beings are more easily attracted by profits than by their own conscience." corrected Fuu with a bitter tone, still vexed by the prejudice.

SHIN. But she immediately regretted having been so harsh at seeing the black-haired little girl ready to cry again but fighting the tears.

_My bad…_ thought Fuu while cursing herself for having let philosophical considerations win over common sense and made her talk back to a child even though the child was already hurt inside.

She heaved a small sigh while promising herself a pair of slaps later on, and endeavoured to recover her normal behaviour with children, meaning the good-natured and patient one.

"But you know…" pursued Fuu in a calmer tone, the ends of her lips slowly stretching in an amused smile, "Among these human beings, there are always some idiots who do not care about money, fame or all of that… There are people for whom their dreams and nakamas matter more, endlessly more…!"

Fuu glanced at the contagious smile of Luffy on his wanted poster and at the confident smile of Ace on his own picture, and smiled one of her most radiant smiles.

"And for your information too… I, I am an idiot!" declared she with confidence, under the expression utterly amazed of the little girl.

SHIN. Second flew by in the room, rain having even quieted down outside.

The black-haired child had frozen in a picture of bewilderment, the hot cocoa still in her hands, and was merely blinking from times to others.

On her side, Fuu was staring deep into her interlocutor's eyes, as if to insist on the seriousness of her declaration, although a warm smile was floating on her lips.

And finally…

"… Hi… Hihi… Hi hi hi!" started laughing the child, hesitantly at first, then with all her heart, to the point where tears where rolling out from her eyes without her being able to stop them.

_So be it… _grinned Fuu at such an answer.

"Hihihihihihihihi…!" was still laughing the black-haired child, letting go of her cocoa to hold her tummy as she was giggling so much it started to hurt.

_Hum, honestly… What matches a child the best, it's sparkles of laugh… I don't really know what happened to this little girl, but she does not seem to have laughed a lot…_

With a good-natured smile, Fuu gazed at the little girl who was laughing her heart out, laughing of relief, laughing of liberation, while the wind was slowly cooling down outside, the last drops of rain washing away the remnants of the night tempest.

And finally, when the child collapsed of tiredness between two pieces of laughter, Fuu gently lifted her up and curled her in the blankets of the big wooden bed.

_Sweet dreams, little girl! Tonight, you can sleep peacefully: I'm going to install a protective barrier around the house to make our presence forgotten, as I'm sure the Marines in the village must be there for you… But don't worry, at least until the sun rises, you can sleep without having to be on alert…_

Then, Fuu caressed slowly the head of the child, moving apart the black bangs from her forehead, and while prying deep inside her heart to relieve the little girl from her weariness and her sadness, she gently kissed her forehead with the silver-glowing kiss of her healing 'spell'.

With a faint smile, she then silently left the bed, and before casting her barrier around the house, glanced at her brother's deck, and more especially at the little something she had been reading some hours before: a small notebook filled with comments left for her by Clow; a small notebook for which content she had crossed all Grand Line, letting her nakamas far away; a small notebook that she had to consider very seriously, since it was filled with information respecting to her Hoshi Hoshi no Mi; a small notebook which content she now knew by heart for having read and re-read it countless times.

It was written under the form of a diary, and was the result of her brother's researches, and Fuu had first been surprised to see that most of the entries dated from the week that had followed Ace's rescue at Marine Ford, but about which her brother had never said anything to her before. Then it was followed by a list of the scope of 'spells' she had already used and of the conditions under which this exceptional Fruit could activate its powers. But if Fuu – or even her brother – had known about the piece of information contained in the last entry – dating of a mere five days – she probably wouldn't have used her Devil Fruit that much during the months following Marine Ford. This entry was consigned as such:

"By adding up the information I just found out in the Library of Ohara with what the old shaman woman had said when meeting with you the last time, I can reasonably conclude that using the power of your Devil Fruit reduces your life span… I can't determine precisely how much it will cost you on the long term, but it is already clear that your health on short term is in danger! Depending on the frequency and intensity of your 'spells', you will end up collapsing more and more often… and in the worst scenario – as you have so brilliantly done with this damn massive teleportation out of Marine Ford – I can even forecast that your body won't hold the shock, no matter how many days you spend sleeping afterwards to build up your energy again. I'm somehow guessing most of your minor spells mustn't be charging a lot for their service, but at least until we made this point clear and determine how much of your power you can use with harmless consequences, endeavour NOT to use your Devil Fruit… AT ALL! I kind of know that it's pretty useless to order you to be careful, since you're such a hard-headed stubborn fool when you decide it, but make an effort, would you! I will keep on seeking a way out of this predicament along my travels, and I'll stay in touch with you if I find anything new. Take care of yourself. Your brother Clow."

_A hard-headed stubborn fool, huh… Well, I guess in that respect we are not siblings only on paper…_

Fuu raised her eyes from the notebook and glanced back at the little girl sleeping soundly behind her. A faint smile appeared on her face, and a tender determination enlightened her eyes as she was remembering the light cupola used on the beach.

_Tsk, Clow, stupid brother, you perfectly know that there are things in this world that one wants to protect no matter the consequences: the life of a friend, the peace of an island, the smile of a child… Sorry… You will probably scold me hard when you'll be back, but so be it…_

_Now let's see… a 'spell' not too powerful but still efficient enough to hide our presence from the Marines…_

* * *

**THE NEXT MORNING, HOUSE OF CLOW AND FUU**

"You're finally awake…?" asked Fuu to the little girl who was discreetly eyeing her from the bed, while her host was putting some breads, tangerines and glasses of milk on the table.

"Y… yes, thank you Mrs…" answered the child with a shy look for her host, "But you couldn't sleep because of me, right? I… took your bed…"

"Hey, you'd better quit the 'Mrs'! I am Fuu, and you can call me like that. We could be sisters, you know, so 'Mrs' is a bit…" laughed Fuu while transferring into the two plates on the table the eggs she had just pan-fried.

"W… well, Fuu…?" hesitated the child, while looking somewhere else.

"Yes…?" answered Fuu with a warm grin to force the girl's eyes back on her.

"…" swallowed back her words the little girl, still unsure about what to say, while walking slowly towards the table.

"Come on, sit down, breakfast is ready. I hope you like sunny-sided eggs, … hum…" stumbled Fuu when trying to call the child by her name.

"My… my name is Robin." answered the little girl in a small whisper.

"Robin? That's a cute name! One of my nakamas has the same first name as you…" said Fuu, without even realizing that somewhere in her memory, what she had just said sounded tremendously weird.

But the strange feeling disappeared almost instantly and quite unnaturally, before Fuu even had the time of thinking something was odd.

"If you feel like it, will you tell me where you're coming from, Robin?" offered Fuu with a friendly smile, sitting down at the table in front of the child.

"The eggs smell delicious…" dodged Robin, still ill-at-ease and anxious, before adding: "You… you are sure it's okay for me to stay and have breakfast here? The Marines will come, you know!"

"I don't think so, so don't worry…" reassured Fuu while biting at some bread.

_The barrier from my 'spell' will stay in place until someone deliberately knocks to our door. Until then, as long as the Marines do not expressly know that this house exists, they will keep on walking in front of it without really seeing it…_

_A more powerful 'spell' would have been kind of problematic… but this one should at least buy us some time to think about what we can do… All the plans I made up last night are definitely no good, and I also have no idea of what Robin wants to do… I wonder if she has a family or people to meet with… But then again, if she's travelling – rather running away from the Marines – alone, it's probably because she doesn't have anyone left… Sigh…_

"Hum, you know… I really have troubles to imagine the Marines being after a child like you…" loudly thought Fuu, as if speaking to herself, "I can't picture a little girl about eight or nine committing crimes terrible enough to deserve a bounty…"

"But… I have the power of a Devil Fruit…" riposted Robin in a nervous tone.

"So what…? The Marine Admirals are all Devil Fruits users! I don't think they can be inconsistent to the point of discriminating people on such criteria…" added Fuu, quite bewildered.

"…" kept quiet Robin, hesitating to reveal where she was coming from, afraid of putting her host in a difficult situation.

Fuu raised her eyes and gazed at the child, but she could only see unrest and sadness in the blue eyes of the little girl sitting in front of her. She slowly dropped her fork on the side of her dish and paused for a while, measuring up what would be the right thing to say.

"Robin… what do think about the fact that you are wanted and have a bounty on your life?" finally asked Fuu with a very serious tone, "What do you think all of this means?"

"I… it… it means that I am someone that the world doesn't want! It means that everyone would be happier if I had never existed! That I do not have the right to live!" cried Robin, her voice raising in a desperate scream at each new sentence, while her eyes were fighting hard not to let tears escape from them.

_Oh my… No one on her side anymore… So that's what it was… 'Not having the right to live', tsk… I don't even want to imagine how many times must she have heard this heartless kind of things? I really hate this world, sometimes…_

"That's not correct." cut Fuu while staring straight into Robin's eyes, "Having a bounty on your head just means that your existence bothers the Government, or rather that it is a threat for them."

The eyes of Robin started welling tears up once more, under the calm yet hurtful statement of being a 'bother'.

"But you know, Robin, what I just said is only true for the GOVERNMENT, definitely not for the world!" concluded Fuu with a tender smile.

SHIN. The child gradually stopped crying and looked at Fuu with utter amazement.

"In this world, there is no existence that is not wanted! Everyone has the right to live!" hammered Fuu with a soft yet unmovable conviction.

And she slowly raised her hand to affectionately pat the head of the little girl in front of her, who did not run away from the contact.

"But… but the Government…" mumbled Robin, uneasy by the confidence showing in her host's smila.

BAM. BAM. BAM. The sound of someone knocking at the door interrupted the sentence of the child, and the voice of a man rose up loudly from the outside.

"Miss Fuu, I am a Commandant of the Marine! My men need to search your house: we are looking for a dangerous criminal who is hiding on this island!"

TILT. Fuu froze and a bitter taste spread in her mouth at hearing the declaration.

_Someone told them this house and I existed… _thought she with bitter regrets.

But she snapped out of her shocked state as soon as she had fallen into it.

_Not after all my efforts to make her trust this world a bit… _thought she while inwardly ordering herself not to show any uneasiness to the child she had just managed to comfort a bit – and who had by chance missed the scared expression on her face as she had already jumped from her chair, completely panicking.

"Oh my…" spoke Fuu while rising from her seat too, forcing a cool and confident expression on her face while glancing at door, "We haven't even finished our breakfast…"

And she turned back to shoot a joking smile at her guest.

Robin's eyes were filled with terror, riveted on the door before desperately looking at the other exits of the house.

_Fear… _regretted Fuu with a concerned expression, before biting her inferior lips as if to grasp a hold on her situation and gain more confidence, _Time to make a choice…_

But a calm hand interrupted the child in her attempt to run away, a hand assorted with a comforting and radiant smile.

"Don't worry, they won't find you!" declared Fuu while mentally looking for a 'spell' powerful enough to get them out of their current predicament.

FLASH. A soft light emerged from Fuu's hand and engulfed the little girl.

And when the light dissolved and Robin looked at her hand that Fuu was holding, she couldn't see it anymore. She started to panic and patted herself with her other hand, as if to be sure her body was still there.

"It's one of my 'spells', don't worry…" reassured Fuu with a confident – forced – smile, "You have my word that they won't be able to see you thanks to it. So just stay close to me, don't let go of my hand and don't make any noise. I promise they won't find you!"

The child faintly nodded, and Fuu smiled.

_They'd definitely better not considering how much this 'spell' must be costing me, grr… _inwardly grumbled she while directing all her attention on the door behind which was awaiting a detachment of Marines who hadn't – for now – slammed open the door but who wasn't going to wait longer.

And with Robin squeezing her hand, Fuu finally answered the Commandant waiting outside.

"You can come in!" said she in a voice loud enough to be heard outside, "But I will be extremely grateful if you refrained from messing up my home."

BAM. The door opened widely, and the Commandant entered first, followed by his unit who instantly started searching the house from top to bottom.

Fuu was sighing deeply in front of such a lack of cordiality, annoyance at seeing such a lack of manners quickly supplanting the fear of being caught red-handed by the Marines.

She then saw the Commandant walking slowly toward her, then looking down on her with an arrogant smile. Robin slowly moved and stuck herself behind Fuu's legs, as if to make herself take no space in the room, and also unconsciously hiding from the Commandant's view. Indeed, Fuu's 'spell' had rendered her completely invisible to them, as promised, but the little girl couldn't help trembling while looking at the Marines.

"It was reported that the criminal we are looking for has been seen on this part of this island." began the Commandant with a self-sufficient tone, "Have you seen that demon child?"

And the Commandant pulled out a wanted poster from his coat to pin it right in front of Fuu's eyes, his tone bordering on the order rather than on the question.

Fuu kept a very calm and neutral expression on her face as she was distractingly looking at the poster, and she gently squeezed back Robin's hand in her own to comfort her.

"This criminal is an eight-year-old girl, with black hair, and her name is Nico Robin. She's a monster with the ability of a Devil Fruit, but above all, she's the Akuma no Ko who escaped from Ohara!" declared the Marine with a harsh and condemning voice, "If you have any information, I would advise you to cooperate!"

Fuu made no answer and couldn't help losing her polite smile as her eyes were hardening at the heartless description given by her interlocutor.

But because of all the anger and the resentment that so many despicable words were provoking, she couldn't help losing her cool and her lips parted.

"Oh…? So this little girl is an archaeologist from Ohara?" deduced she with a faint smile, as if she had just found the missing piece of a complex puzzle, "I assume that you must be looking for her because she can read Poneglyphs, can't she…"

TILT. The Commandant startled, as did all the other Marines present in the room, and they all stared at Fuu with disbelief.

"You do know about this kind of things? You'd better be careful, missy, you know this word is taboo: the World Government considers criminal everything that deals with Poneglyphs! I could perfectly arrest you right now just for having pronounced this word!" scorned the Commandant, before leering Fuu from head to toes, especially the cleavage of her nightgown, "Hum, since you're cute, I might forgive you today! If you help us, that is… That demon girl must be found! She is a monster who will end her days at Impel Down!"

"Is that so…?" hissed Fuu with a curt and dry tone, the last statement having made flashbacks of Ace's execution flush through her mind, and revolt and stress were starting to weight on her nerves despite all the attempts of the reasonable part of her mind to keep them under control.

_A little girl at Impel Down…? What a sick joke! Where are supposed to be the Marines protecting civilians and showing true justice…? These guys are no better than the violent criminals they're supposed to go after…_

Fuu's eyes were now silently sending sparks, as she was withstanding the stare of the Commandant without flinching.

Seeing that his little offer had ended up unpicked, the Commandant of the unit of Marines clenched his teeth and looked away from Fuu to yell to his men to finish their job quickly.

"So that's what it was: it's your knowledge which is bothering them…" whispered Fuu for Robin once her interlocutor had turned away, "My brother told me the story of the Island Ohara: he went there a mere few days before it was reduced to ashes by a Buster Call… These… jerks… dared burning all this knowledge pretending it was a crime… Nonsense! Knowledge in itself is never bad!"

"Hey…?" let escape between her lips Robin, as she was contemplating for the first time someone who wasn't treating the people of Ohara as demons.

TILT. The Commandant suddenly made a U-turn and glanced from left to right, before staring at Fuu again.

"What… did you say…?" hammered he while looking for the source of the childish voice he had just heard.

TILT. And his eyes stopped on the Fuu's nightgown, at the level of her hips, where the flow of the fabric was rather unnaturally bending as if something was pressed onto her legs.

"What… the…?" wondered the Marine before his eyes widened as a new consideration was slowly forming in his mind.

His lips stretched in an amused and interested smile, and he slowly lowered the goggles from his head in front of his eyes.

"So here she is…!" muttered he with a bad-natured laugh that made Fuu froze, "The little sneaky demon…"

"Wh… how…?" mumbled Fuu, taken aback at seeing the Commandant's eyes pinned on the place where the invisible Robin was standing, while the little girl herself was tightening her hand into hers in panic.

"And you're a Devil Fruit user, hum… Did you expect your little trick to fool us, missy?" smirked the Marine with a sinister smile, as he was slowly putting back his goggles back on his head and making a sign to one of his men to approach with Kairoseki hand-cuffs, "You might not know it, but we have quite a good researcher in the Devil Fruit area… He's called Dr. Vegapunk and it's customary for any Commandant of the Cipher Pol to receive… let's say a welcome gift from him upon taking their duties… and I was no exception!"

The Marine softly brushed the goggles under his fingers.

"Quite useful, isn't it…?" grinned he with a sadistic and victorious expression, "Developed just after the chaos caused at Impel Down when a damn criminal fooled everyone around by usurping Chief Warden Magellan identity… But now, little tricks from Devil Fruit users will be useless against me! The demon hunt is finished!"

TILT. Worry left place to resentment and anger in Fuu's eyes.

"Which 'demons'?" busted out Fuu, fear and panic having only made her rage grow stronger as her eyes were blackening by the disgust provoked by the repeated insult, "What do you think you're saying, talking about power of the demon, or about demonic scholars? In this world, there is no power which is bad by nature! As there is no knowledge bad by nature! What right do you have to call them 'demons'? You don't understand a thing!"

"You are the one who doesn't understand about what she is talking about! Poneglyphs are a serious matter! So hand over the kid!" yelled the Commandant, "She's a danger for this world!"

"Wrong! She is a danger for the Government!" retorted Fuu, the reasonable part of her mind having finally given up onto keeping low profile in front of the Marines, "You tell me I do not understand? I will tell you what I understand! I understand that if the World Government bothers putting such a bounty on a mere little girl unable of murdering innocent citizens and send the Cipher Pol after her, then that can only be because she is a threat to their political position because of this special knowledge she holds. Said differently, that means they are afraid her understanding could disturb the balance of their power if made public. As such, that must means there is a truth written in these Poneglyphs sufficiently powerful to make their political position crumble, and they want to get rid of this threat no matter what! That's the only thing there is to understand! And that's all their own damned problem, in the end! If they have a sore weak point and if they are afraid that a little girl will divulge it to the world, it's their damned own fault! Your little stories about demons and crimes are just excuses to justify this banishment of the truth…"

SHIN. A heavy silence fell on the unique room of Clow and Fuu's house.

Everyone was staring in shock at the girl who had spoken with a loud and inflexible tone, without any fear in her eyes, plainly presenting such provocative and sensible deductions to their Commandant. And some of the Marine soldiers present – the smartest ones – were even starting to consider they had heard too much, and should consider deserting before they will be reduced to silence by force.

Robin was also looking at Fuu with a mixture of hope and gratefulness. She was gazing at this 'big sister' who had just dared told an agent of the Government that everything was THEIR fault. And for the first time since the destruction of Ohara, she felt her lips spreading a bit into the beginning of a smile.

"Grr…" finally reacted the Commandant with a deep frown on his forehead, "I don't know from where you have learned about that, but it sounds like you have discovered a bit too much…"

TILT. Fuu's eyes recovered a normal colour as she was slowly cooling down, her previous outburst having let out a lot of the pressure she had accumulated.

_Wait a second… He… he admits it? It's really as I said? What the… I was just saying all of that at the same time I was building it up in my mind… It was just a guess, even if I believed in what I said, but now this damn dirty jerk recognises it's all true? They are after Robin's life for such a futile reason? For a political intrigue? What the…?_

"Anyway, it seems that just being cute won't help you now, missy… What a shame!" laughed sarcastically the Commandant, as he was making a gesture of the hand to order his men to surround Fuu and Robin, "Kill the girl and capture the child!"

"Rejected…" coldly answered Fuu who was now so much on the nerves that her eyes were dark with frost, as she was slowly grabbing the still-invisible Robin to hold her in her arms.

The Marines were only at a mere two meters from them, swords drawn, and Kairoseki handcuffs ready to use.

Her teeth clenched, Fuu had started muttering some 'spells'.

The Commandant gave the order to the Marines to charge.

BAM. The door suddenly closed under a violent draught caused by the wind, and in answer, the window above the study desk slammed open, sending piles of papers and notebooks flying on the floor.

The Marines hesitated a brief second.

In that second, Fuu had dashed towards the window, still holding Robin in her arms.

"Catch them!" shouted the Cipher Pol Commandant while drawing his own sword to charge them.

SCHLING. The swords of the few Marines present on the way between Fuu and the window bumped into some light shield, under the dumbfounded expression of the soldiers who seemed to have forgotten their opponent was a Devil Fruit user.

And before the Marines could react to this new piece of information: FLASH. Fuu released her power while diving right through the open window, activating her 'spell' as she was falling towards the waves of the sea lying ten metres under the rocky headland the house was built on.

"WHAT THE…?" roared the Commandant while dashing at the window, but he could only watch helplessly at his targets flying away from him.

FLUUT. Two wings of an immaculate white had emerged from Fuu's back as soon as she had passed the window, and she was rising in the airs saturated with light, spreading her wings wide open to escape in the morning sky.

The Commandant of the Cipher Pol, flushed with rage, could only shout at his subordinates to find him a Den-Den-Mushi, while his silhouette on the coast was disappearing from the field of vision of Fuu.

A couple of seconds later, the only sound reaching Fuu's ears was the call of seagulls.

Realising there was only the ocean around her, she inspired deeply, and let out a deep sigh, shaking off all her irritation and adrenaline.

Then, she looked at Robin, cancelling her invisibility spell while replacing it by a floating one in order to make her passenger lighter, and let her usual smile spring up on her face.

"… Why did you defend me?" asked Robin, still perplexed about what had just happened.

"Hum… What if I tell you I didn't like this Cipher Pol Commandant's manners?" tried Fuu in a teasing smile.

"…" sulked Robin.

SHIN. Fuu paused a second on the expression of her interlocutor, finding out that pouting puffed cheeks were probably one of the most childish expressions the little wanted girl had shown her ever since they had met.

"If I tell you I did it because I wanted to do it, would you believe me?" finally added she with a serious yet friendly smile.

"That's not a reason!" grumbled again Robin.

"A reason, huh…? Well, there are people who kill each other without necessarily having a reason for it… So why would I need a valid reason to save someone?" answered Fuu with a soft resolution shining in her eyes.

"…Hum…" admitted Robin while averting her eyes, still embarrassed by the declaration, before finally remembering what she had wanted to ask: "F… Fuu…"

"Yes?" answered Fuu while looking carefully around them to be sure no one from the Marine was on their heels, be it by ship, by winged Zoan, or thanks to another weird invention from Dr. Vegapunk.

"What you said… about the Truth hidden in the Poneglyph History, and about the Government… is it true?" asked the child with eyes filled with a mixture of hope and fear.

"Seems like it…" replied Fuu with a neutral tone, "You know, in this world, History is written by the winners… but in reality, the Truth is only one! So when the truth does not please the winners, they just rewrite History to tell people only what they want to tell them… Robin, you're an archaeologist, aren't you? What do you want to study: History or the Truth? What do you want to share with the world?"

"The… the Truth!" said Robin with a loud and determined voice, her blue eyes shining with a new light.

_Good answer! _thought Fuu with a smile, but without saying it out loud.

"So keep on looking for it, amidst all these modified versions of History… And don't forget thinking about what you will do when you'll have found it. I already said it, but knowledge is never good or bad in itself: it's what people do with it that determines its nature…" reminded Fuu, her eyes lost on the endless sky.

"Ah!" exclaimed Robin, realising suddenly the weight of the responsibilities on her shoulders.

"But if it's you, I am sure everything will be alright!" added Fuu with a warm grin, "I am sure you will protect this knowledge from anyone who would want to use it wrong. And I am sure that, one day, you will find the nakamas that will protect you and help you bearing this responsibility!"

Robin stared at Fuu with amazement, Fuu who had just pronounced the same words as Saul, the giant who had saved her on Ohara. And she wished deep inside her heart that these words will come true.

Fuu held Robin a bit closer up against her and gazed at the leather bracelet on her right wrist.

GLING. One of its pendants was floating of a few centimetres, pointing the direction of the rising sun.

_Well… I hope I won't bring them any trouble…_


	7. Story III, Paradox, Precious

**THE DAY THE TIME OF ONE PIECE GOT BENDED, MAKING THE STORY REWRITE ITSELF**

…

The Ones Dear to our Hearts

…

**GRAND LINE, NEW WORLD, MOBY DICK**

On the leading ship of WhiteBeard's Fleet, sitting up against the mast in the lookout, Portgas D. Ace was gazing at the starry sky with melancholy.

As usual in this kind of moments, his thoughts had brought him back several months in the past. And in the downpour of memories where were twirling his little brother now amazingly strong, his grandfather torn between his duty and his family, his father WhiteBeard ignoring the trap of the Marines to come and save him, and all his nakamas showing up for him in the heart of Marine Ford, irremediably appeared two immaculate wings and a face wearing a thousand of embarrassed expressions, whose smile was disappearing in a cloud of bubbles of blue light, making them all escape from this epic battle.

…_Now that I think about it, her brother chewed us hard-core when he came to pick her up! Tsk, what a family!_

Ace was still remembering each word of the strange and worrying speech that Clow had made when he had come on the Mody Dick to pick his sister up, after the huge teleportation of Marine Ford who had let Fuu in a state of exhaustion quite hazardous.

"… Now you know what her power is capable of… and you saw with which consequences…! The more her wish – or let's say 'spell' – perturbs the equilibrium of this world, the more it costs her! I can't say how much all of this will cost her, and the problem is that, even if she does not care about political intrigues or supremacy, she is the kind of stupid person who would do anything to help the people around her, especially the people dear to her…" had added the weird brother with a fatalistic look for Luffy and Ace, "She might be able to reshape the world is she 'wished' it but won't do it… she's responsible, a bit too much, even… so she will always forbid herself to defy the laws of this world for unimportant conflicts… I am not really worried on that side, but… on the other side, the only control over her Devil Fruit is her will-power, and I can't imagine what she would do once it's weakened by seeing people dear to her involved… So I'll take her away… because I can't just look at that from a distance, since she owns this power because of me!"

And on this bitter yet intractable confession, he had gone to pick Fuu in her cabin, where she was still sleeping, and they had both left the ship thanks to the power of his own Devil Fruit.

_An unbelievable self-control, hum? Well, we kind of already knew: her strength is ridiculously low, yet she endured all her 'spells' to protect us, at that time… She should have fainted way before the teleportation, it's obvious… Even Ivankov had said that is was a really risky bet… And the worst is that I'm sure she knew what she was doing, but still took it all on her and used her power to make everyone escape from there… For her… 'wish', hum…_

At that time, WhiteBeard, Luffy and Ace had been the only ones to hear the dangerous truth about the power of the Hoshi Hoshi no Mi, and they had agreed to keep it a secret.

_Even Luffy didn't have any trouble to understand why people shouldn't hear about the true nature of this Devil Fruit…_

A few weeks afterwards, Luffy had left them too, to go searching the rest of his nakamas that had been separated on different islands – information given by Fuu's brother – and the angelic girl had offered her help.

Luffy had agreed to her help on-board, but categorically refused to let her teleporting his nakamas on the Thousand Sunny, pretexting that it wouldn't be interesting. Of course, Ace knew it was probably only one the reasons, the second being that Luffy wanted to prevent Fuu from using such a powerful 'spell'.

_Seems like this Baka-otouto can be tactful, sometimes, heehee…_

On their side, WhiteBeard and Ace had taken great care of dodging any question relative to the power of their 'angelic saviour' when some of their nakamas were asking about it – which hadn't helped with making Fuu less mysterious and the rest of the crew had kept on fuelling gossips and fantastic stories about her.

_I guess only Marco and a couple of others really care about knowing the truth about her, in the end… For the rest, she's staying their 'angelic saviour' or 'angel from Marine Ford', for her biggest embarrassment, heehee…_

The soft chuckle at remembering Fuu's usual attempts to make herself appear as a normal person and to make the crew stop calling her by embarrassing qualifiers gradually deadened in Ace's throat as he was suddenly considering that no such qualifier had been seen on any wanted poster.

_It was quite a surprise… That the Government won't bother changing our own bountys or posters make sense… We're already in the New World and every sensible bounty hunter knows who they're facing… But for Fuu… She wasn't wanted, she wasn't even known, but still they hadn't put a bounty on her head and her participation in the war had even been hidden to the media._

_I really wonder why… There couldn't have been a catastrophe more important than our escape from Marine Ford for Sengoku to ignore such a fact? And even if the Marines still ignore the details of her power, it's impossible that they let its potential pass them by… Besides, if some among us have spotted her at Marine Ford, it should be the same on the Marines side… so how did they hush it up?_

_Unless her brother has done something about it, but what and how…?_

But weeks had flown by without any other information, and Ace didn't understand now the situation better than at the end of Marine Ford.

Of course, during these past months, Fuu had come to visit them a few times, giving them news about Luffy's adventures or just coming to meet with WhiteBeard or him, and each of her visits was a pretext for partying and banqueting – not that pirates would need an excuse for it, but it always felt better with one.

Indeed, all the crew was still admiring the enigmatic girl who had saved them from the battle of Marine Ford, and who was always coming without prior notice, landing on the deck in a flutter of iridescent wings. A girl with a mysterious power, quite cute on top of that, able to compete in speed with Marco on his Phoenix form, incomprehensibly metamorphosing their captain into a doting father when she was present, and smiling to everyone with an angelic expression, even if she didn't hesitate to send electricity sparks to any pirate who would had wanted and try to use the festive mood for pawing her.

Electricity sparks often followed by intense flames that were attacking the tankard or the ass of the victims. Flames about which no one in the crew was ignoring the origin, except Fuu, who had strangely managed to take no notice of what was happening to the jerks that were trying to touch her a bit too familiarly or to address her with some shady joke. The only one who had escaped this pyrotechnic counterattack was WhiteBeard himself, who was always welcoming Fuu with his arms wide open, and enjoyed sending her lots of allusions filled with implied meanings – temporary aspect of the personality of the Yonkou that was often making the rest of the crew crash on the deck in disbelief, for they had never seen their Captain acting like that before, nor showing off his affection in such an expansive manner.

_Oyaji even asked her if she wanted to join our Fleet, and the argument had degenerated into an arm-wrestling duel with Luffy, just to decide whose nakama Fuu will be…_

_Heehee, that was so funny! I remember Fuu ended up knocking out Luffy with a punch, and scolding Oyaji about her being the only one to decide about her own life. We all laughed so hard, among the rest of the crew! I must admit that Luffy's face is always priceless, but Oyaji's face at that time was worth One Piece…_

Ace chuckled at the remembrance of the episode.

_Oyaji has never been the kind of person who shows his affection, but it's different with Fuu… I don't know what she did to him or why he reacts like that, but it seems like she opened a new door in his heart…_

_Well… then, I guess… for me too…_

And with a soft smile, Ace went back to his contemplation of the starry sky of Grand Line, wondering what the object of his tender thoughts was doing at the same moment, when suddenly:

"Ace!" called Fuu with a large grin, while landing her toes on the railing of the lookout, her invisibility screen switching off in a flutter of wings.

"Gyaa!" gasped Ace, falling backward because of surprise, and bumping into the wooden floor of the lookout in the process.

"Kyaa…" let escape Fuu as the shock was making her lose her balance on her perch, and crash from all her weight on the floor in front of her.

_Ouch… Hum, odd… I thought the floor would be harder than that… _thought Fuu while reopening her eyes.

_Argh… That was stupid… I should be used to her showing up like that, ever since… _thought Ace while slowly raising his head, before ending up nose to nose with Fuu, a Fuu looking both surprised and embarrassed, and who had fallen astride him, one of her hand on his chest in an attempt to break her fall.

Slowly, Ace lifted up his hand towards the girl who had fallen on him, mesmerized.

_Two white wings shining on the nude back of a nightgown… long and curly hazelnut hair that reflect light at each movement… deep eyes that seem to speak all the emotions of this world… the same… exactly the same as our first meeting… _muttered Ace to himself while gently caressing the cheek of Fuu under his fingers.

Fuu blushed furiously and pulled back her second hand from her back to try and push away Ace. But in that abrupt movement of recoil, Robin slided from her back, still asleep, and slowly fell between her and Ace.

SHIN. A long moment of silence followed…

"You have a DAUGHTER?" finally shouted Ace, his mouth wide open of shock and his eyes jumping out of their sockets.

BONG. Fuu's fist swooped down on Ace's head.

"Don't be ridiculous!" retorted Fuu, her cheeks on fire and a vein swelling on her forehead, while taking Robin back in her arms, "We have the same age, you and me! How could I have an eight-year-old daughter?"

SHIN. A small moment of silence passed…

Ace was massaging his head, having finally gone past the surprise shock, and was looking attentively at Fuu and at the little girl.

_Fuu is barefoot… wearing a nightgown… _thought he while contemplating the person in front of him,_ That means that she left her place on short notice… And she looks really tired, even she is smiling as usual… so…_

"So… what happened?" finally asked Ace with a serious tone.

"Well… Hum, I think this time, I will really end up with a bounty on my head…" tried to joke around Fuu, while gazing at the little girl with a comforting yet resigned smile.

"Wow…" whistled Ace, guessing that such a declaration was to take with seriousness, "For her?"

"Hum…" agreed Fuu with a protective gaze for the child, "This little girl is called Nico Robin. She has a bounty of 79 million of Berrys on her head, and the Marines and the Commandant of the Cipher Pol busted in at my place yesterday to arrest her…"

"So… knowing you as I know you, I can already guess what happened: you defended her and flew away, just after having sent some wonderfully acid comments to the Marines, right?" sighed Ace while readjusting his hat on his head.

Fuu crooked a little smile coupled with a sweat-drop at the back of her head while thinking: _Am I really that easy to figure out?_

"Wanted, hum…? But I've got some trouble to picture a kid like her having a bounty that high…" admitted Ace while staring at the sleeping face of Robin, "She looks like a normal kid… But if the infamous Cipher Pol is after her, I guess there's a reason… a way deeper reason…"

"She is a Devil Fruit user, but she is not dangerous…" replied Fuu with a hesitant tone, "You know, I've seen no will of hurting people in her eyes… What I can see, it's merely the shadows of betrayal and incomprehension… The reason why they are after her is because she is the last archaeologist of Ohara, so it seems she has the knowledge necessary to harm the political equilibrium of the World Government…"

"Wow! To be sure…" whistled again Ace, "If it's about politics, child or adult, they will come after her even to the ends of the world…"

His eyes fell on the sleeping little girl with a mixture of compassion and revolt, knowing deep inside how hard it was to be rejected because of a heritage you did not choose to have.

"That's precisely why I don't want to bring you trouble… I don't know myself why I came to find you, it's strange… I had no idea about where to go when I ran away, but… Well, I just… I just followed the direction of your Vivre Card without thinking… I don't even know why…" confessed Fuu, deeply embarrassed and averting her eyes in shame, "But now, the 'why' doesn't matter… it was just stupid and selfish of me…"

Fuu raised her head to pin her eyes into Ace's, as if to build up determination.

"I'm sorry… I won't stay long on-board, I promise!" declared she in a tone filled with held-back concern, "I won't let WhiteBeard bear the weight of this conspiracy!"

Ace froze a brief second, then smiled and gently caressed Robin's head. His hand then slowly rose towards Fuu's face and he delicately seized a curl of hazelnut hair between his fingers.

_Ace…?_

"Baka!" smiled he, playing with the hair-curl with a teasing grin, "Who do you think you're speaking with, hum…?"

And Ace brushed the hazelnut hair-curl near his lips before letting go of it with a look impossible to interpret.

Fuu felt the red rushing to her cheeks, and she lowered her eyes under the shadow of her hair, trying hard to control the tone of her voice when she answered that she wouldn't change her mind, and that she needed to meet with WhiteBeard in order not to put in front of a difficult situation.

Ace could only sigh in answer, perfectly knowing that he won't be able to make her change her position like that, Fuu's sense of responsibilities being nearly as strong as his, as soon as it was with regard to involving their nakamas.

"So let's go ask for some of his time, then…" said Ace while standing up, his eyes wandering towards the faraway horizon where dawn was colouring the sky with lighter shades, "But I'm quite sure Oyaji will tell you exactly what I'm telling you right now: you are always welcome in this Fleet! And be it political intrigue, larceny, revolt or battle against some Marines, a pirate is a pirate, a bounty is a bounty, and nakamas are nakamas!"

_Chotto kakkoi… _thought Fuu with a smile filled with suppressed admiration for the man giving her such a proud expression while proudly standing in front of the endless sky.

"So let's go down!" finally added Ace, turning back to Fuu and the child, "It's daybreak, so my shift in the lookout is almost finished."

"Hum, sure…" agreed Fuu while stretching her wings, "Oh, do you want me to lift you down to the deck, Ace?"

TILT. Ace's smile vanished under a more troubled expression.

"Are you kidding me?" vehemently protested he, under the startled look of Fuu, "Do me the favour of folding your wings away! I will the one to lift you down!"

"Huh? Hum… if… if you want, but…" mumbled Fuu, quite taken aback and diligently holding Robin in her arms again.

_No but really! Using her Devil Fruit pumps her lots of energy, so I won't let her use it for something like that… _convinced himself Ace, before thinking with a slight blush, _Besides, being lifted up by the girl I l… Tsk, no seriously, kakkowarui!_

And he curled Fuu in one of his arms, letting Robin right between their two chests, and started climbing down the rope ladder going from the lookout to the deck with his free hand, sufficiently slowly not to wake up the sleeping little girl.

_She sleeps really soundly, this kid… Hum, well, there is quite a long way from the island where lives Fuu's brother and our actual position, so I guess the trip has extenuated her… and on top of that, the conflict with the Cipher Pol is quite recent, so… _thought Ace before stopping climbing down along the ropes at the same time his train of thoughts had stopped, and he swiftly turned his head toward Fuu.

"You told me the Marines has busted in your home yesterday?" asked he with a stunned expression.

"Hum, well, yes… Yesterday morning…" answered Fuu with a puzzled look, quite surprise by Ace's question.

"That would mean that you've been flying for… 40-45 hours… without stopping… to cross Grand Line, Red Line and this part of the New World…" calculated Ace in a voice where irritation was becoming more and more tangible.

"Ah, hum… N… not really, you know that I can fly quite fast…" tried to joke around Fuu, but Ace stared at her with the kind of dark look to which it was better not to tell stories.

"I know the speed at which you can fly…" roared he, "40 hours to reach us is already the kind of trip a normal person won't be able to do… and with a child in your arms on top of that…"

"…" stayed quiet Fuu, silently averting her eyes.

"And…" pursued Ace while trying to keep the tone of his voice under control, "Can I ask you how you still manage to stand up? Your face is a bit pale but you do not really seem extenuated…"

In Ace's mind were showing up remembrances of event he never wanted to experiment again: memories of Fuu abusing of her power at Marine Ford, her body lacerated under the counter-effects of her 'spells' and panting heavily before collapsing in his arms after the teleportation.

"I… I have…" hesitated Fuu, before looking into Ace's eyes and swallowing back her indecision by seeing how seriously he was gazing at her, "I coupled a 'spell' of resistance to the fatigue to my 'spell' of flight…"

Ace's eyes narrowed.

"When my wings will disappear, all the tiredness accumulated in the 'spell' will be released and will catch me back…" let Fuu slip between her lips in a breathe, before looking somewhere else and adding: "Even if I had tried several variants of my healing 'spell', as long as it is MY exhaustion, it's no good: I just can't make it disappear…"

SHIN. A little moment of silence fell on the two interlocutors.

Morning wind blew around them, bringing the warmth of dawn.

And finally, Ace clenched his teeth and resumed his climbing down to the deck, glancing at Fuu in silence.

Daybreak was now diluting the dark blue of the night into a lighter sky: it won't be long before the rest of the crew awakens. The ones keeping watch during their night shift, like Ace, will soon be allowed to go back to their cabins and enjoy some hours of sleep.

_Fuu won't accept to take some rest until she sees Oyaji to explain the situation to him… Grr, I'm quite sure of it! _thought Ace upon reaching the main deck, before leading her to the cabin of their captain, his fists clenched in helplessness.

Ace knocked on the door and asked for an audience, while Fuu was composing her expression, mentally repeating the favour she was going to ask the Yonkou. Then, she put back the still-asleep Robin on her back to make it easier for her to walk and stepped inside the room, flanked by Ace.

"Fuu!" called WhiteBeard with a large grin of anticipation, "I am always happy to welcome my favourite daughter-in-law!"

Even if they were now used to the allusion, Fuu and Ace couldn't help blushing at it a little, a reaction that deeply amused their interlocutor.

"Gurararara… It's rather rare for you to ask for a formal talk… What can I do for you?" noticed WhiteBeard with a new smile for his guest.

_Always the same stupid face of a doting father each time he sees her… But where is that shift of his character coming from? _thought Ace while looking at the man who was – normally – one of the most impressive pirates of Grand Line, his Haki making people tremble in fear when confronting his eyes.

"Good morning, WhiteBeard." greeted Fuu with a very polite yet sincere smile, "I would like to be honest with you. I did not come alone today, and that's the reason behind this formal consultation with you: I came with a child."

CLONG. Before Fuu could had went on, WhiteBeard's jaw had unhooked from approximately thirty centimetres, and his bulging eyes took several seconds before recovering from the shock.

He then suddenly turned his head toward Ace with an intense dark glare, as if he was firing thunderbolts at him through his eyes, his aura getting charged with electricity and becoming darker and darker.

Ace froze and swallowed back with difficulty, while cold sweats were running down his face under the pressure of the disavowal aura emanating from his father WhiteBeard.

"Oy… Oyaji…! No, that's… I mean… Don't look at me like that! I… I didn't… It's not… I promise you I didn't…" tried to articulate Ace, both his hands raised in front of him in sign of negation, his eyes bulging out too, but with fear.

"Hum, hum…" coughed Fuu to focus the attention of the Yonkou back on her, not understanding what the problem was between Ace and WhiteBeard but estimating that they couldn't lose any time for the matter at stake.

And she slowly made Robin switch from her back to her chest, before keeping on with her explanation.

"So I would like to introduce you this little girl. She is wanted by the World Government for political and historical reasons, as she is a survivor of the island of the scholars-archaeologists, Ohara, and she knows how to read Poneglyphs." exposed calmly Fuu, before glancing back at her interlocutor.

The black aura emanating from WhiteBeard slowly disappeared as he was realizing the misunderstanding, and Ace heaved a short sigh of relief.

"Hum…" reflected WhiteBeard while gazing at the black-haired child, "I would have preferred teasing you a bit more by asking you when I will finally become a grandfather, but unfortunately, time is not to jokes anymore…"

And the Yonkou crooked a short glance at Ace who just averted his eyes with a troubled and blushing face, his hands diving into the pockets of his pants in an attempt to keep countenance.

On her side, Fuu had become probably as red as a human being could become – having finally understood the previous allusion of WhiteBeard when she had spoken about a child – and her lips were trembling of the deepest embarrassment.

"So…" pursued the captain, satisfied by the reaction he had provoked onto his two interlocutors and moving back to the serious topic, "I have already heard about the Demons of Ohara, and the crime linked to the Poneglyphs is older than you would think: the World Government is really serious about all of that…"

"She… she's only eight, but she has to put up with the power of a Devil Fruit and a bounty of 79 million…" insisted Fuu, a bit worried by the cautious reaction of the Yonkou, but not willing to step down from her position, "And she has only faced betrayal and cruelty since the destruction of her home island… So that's why… that's why I decided I will show her that there is no one on this world who has the right to forbid her to live!"

Fuu gazed at Robin with a protective smile, but determined eyes, determination enlightening her amber eyes.

Ace and WhiteBeard could only blink at Fuu in disbelief and helplessness, silently wondering how a girl that young could drown herself into such responsibilities, her wisdom deserving to be from another world – a world without pirates, a world without injustice being as common as in theirs, a world where people could believe in a right to live and to hope without having anyone telling them they didn't deserve it…

They couldn't really understand where all of that was coming from, but they could only admire it, faintly smiling in front of this reaction which wasn't what people were used to, but which was impossible to hate.

"And…" pursued Fuu after a short break, still gazing at Robin with her resolute smile, "I am sure that she will end up finding out what is this Truth that the Wold Government is trying so hard to hide, and that she will make a good use of it. No knowledge is bad by nature, after all… So I trust her! And I trust she will find nakamas that will help her share this burden… Definitely!"

GLING. Fuu gazed a few second at the leather bracelet on her right wrist, and that symbolised the bonds between nakamas, that same bracelet that Luffy and everyone had offered her.

"So well… That's the reason why I will travel a bit with her…" added Fuu with a confident smile, even if she had no precise idea of where to go, "I'm really sorry to abuse your hospitality by asking you if we can rest here… I know that the Marines won't keep silent about it, and I would prefer to leave before they find out I'm there, but…"

But a guttural laugh interrupted the series of apologies of Fuu.

"Gurararara… So you ask for a formal audience and that's all you ask of me? Such a small thing, gurararara… That's not the kind of things that can bother us!" laughed WhiteBeard with a serious yet teasing smile, "We are speaking about the New World of pirates! This kind of little things or even bounty doesn't weight a lot here!"

First glancing at the Yonkou with an uttered amazement, Fuu finally managed to answer the Captain's laughter by a smile filled with gratefulness.

She felt a warm hand patting her shoulder, and she shot a radiant smile at Ace, before thanking WhiteBeard for his hospitality again, and leaving his cabin with Robin and his Second Commander.

"See…? I told you so! Oyaji is just like that..." exclaimed Ace with a victorious smile, but without being able to tease Fuu on the relative importance of 'small' matters according to the Yonkou, since he had himself been caught in the same situation several years before, when he had told WhiteBeard about the name of his real father, "He can be kind of lenient on some stuffs, but he is always dead serious when it's about his family, and…"

TILT. Ace froze when mentioning the word 'family', before blushing furiously and digging his hat on his eyes with a discomfited gesture.

"Damn, that Oyaji!" muttered he while remembering the embarrassing insinuation of WhiteBeard about a potential grandson.

Along the corridor, they ended up meeting Ace's nakamas, and the Second Commander of the Fleet stayed behind to leave them some instructions.

Fuu looked at the scene from the distance, patiently waiting for Ace, when she saw Marco nodding to something before coming her way. He greeted her with his usual phlegmatic smile, and took the sleeping Robin in his arms – one arm, as if the eight-year-old child was feathery – and brought the sleeping little girl inside a cabin – the very cabin Fuu was using each time she was spending several days on the Mody Dick, private cabins being the privilege of the Captain, the Commanders of the Fleet, and of the rare GIRLS present on-board.

While passing by Ace, Marco threw a friendly slap into his back, with an ambiguous look for the winged girl behind them, and finally disappeared inside the cabin, letting the rest of their nakamas chuckling at Ace and taking the torch on to heat up the debate.

_What are they talking about? _thought Fuu, quite bewildered by seeing Ace fighting up the comments of his nakamas with a mixture of irritation and self-consciousness, before seemingly abandoning the battle and leaving his nakamas in the lurch to come back to her.

"Grr… That damned Marco!" screeched Ace between his teeth, as if speaking to himself, his cheeks still flushed.

_Just wait before I have the opportunity of sending you a blow below the belt like that one… And they passed the word around or something? All that mess for a little comment about cabins, tsk! My Baka-Otouto can be kind of slow and dense, but them, they're rather heavy…_

"Something is wrong?" innocently asked Fuu, surprised to see some of Ace's nakamas staring at them as if they were expecting something and giggling beforehand about it.

"Nah, nothing!" roared Ace while lighting up an intense flame in his hand and staring backward with a bad-natured look.

SHIN. The dark glare had instantly dispersed all the spectators who had stayed in the corridor.

"Marco will take care of Robin, you can trust him." finally sighed Ace with a smile for his interlocutor.

"Hum, I can guess… Thanks for everything!" smiled in answer Fuu, "… and my apologies again…"

"Ah, stop apologising, already! We told you: you're welcome!" retorted Ace, with a serious yet irritated tone.

He then turned his eyes towards her, gazing at the girl in front of him with a concerned expression.

"You know, everyone enjoys your visits on this ship… and they would love to be of service to you, be it only as a thanks for Marine Ford, so… Just quit worrying for us! Just… tsk…" hesitated Ace while gazing at the pale and exhausted face of Fuu, "You… you always take it all on you, so… for the first time we can do something, just trust us…"

Ace slowly raised his hand towards the white wings of the girl, hardly daring to touch them, by fear of seeing them shattering under the caress.

_When 'her wings will disappear", hum? _thought Ace at the remembrance of the description of Fuu's exhaustion 'spell'.

"You must be at your limit already, right…?" asked he while gently putting his two hands on Fuu's shoulders, his voice sad but comforting as he was leaning towards her to whisper softly: "Don't worry about the kid and just take some rest…"

Fuu's eyes widened a bit under the proposal, but all her pride couldn't really help her to keep her body quiet, at this very moment.

She didn't even think that she would prefer to disperse her 'spell' once she would be lying in a bed. She didn't even think about what cabin she was going to use, now that Robin was occupying hers. She just thought about this last sentence which sounded so tempting and this voice so comforting.

"Hum…" she just answered in a smiling whisper, her eyes closing down as she was dispersing her 'spell', on trust.

FLUUT. Her wings disappeared in a crackle of stardust, and she collapsed in Ace's arms.

"Baka…" muttered Ace in an afflicted smile, while lifting up the unconscious Fuu in his arms to bring her to the cabin.

_How long would you have waited before releasing the hold of your power? There're limits to what you can endure, you know… I can already feel your body freezing so quickly… _thought Ace while rising his own body temperature and holding Fuu a little closer on to his chest.

* * *

**NEW WORLD, MOBY DICK, ACE'S CABIN**

Ace blinked and opened his eyes, slowly waking up after his night on the watch in the lookout.

_Ah… It's starting to smell good from the kitchen… must be lunch… If I don't get out of my cabin soon, I can already picture the guys having a heyday about the reason why I'm late…_

So Ace gently lifted up Fuu's head from his arm to carefully put it on the pillow, and stood up.

He then piled up the blankets on the bed, wrapping up the convalescent girl like a silk-worm in order to make her stop shivering – since the Fleet had entered the climate area of a Winter Island – then put on his black boots and left the cabin.

On opening the door, he found out Robin squatting on the door-step.

"H… hi…" said Ace, a bit surprise to find the little girl there.

Robin raised her eyes, and silently stared at Ace.

"Hum… I'm Ace. And Fuu has explained us your situation. Nice to meet you, Robin!" smiled Ace while bending over his head very politely, before feeling strangely ill-at-ease by the total absence of answer from the child, "So you're already awake, hum… Has Marco told you who we are and where we are?"

"I am on the main ship of the Fleet of WhiteBeard, a Yonkou from the New World. Fuu brought me here because you can protect us from the Marines, because you are all criminals with bountys bigger than mine. And you, you are someone precious to Fuu. She showed me your wanted poster, the wanted posters or her precious nakamas." recited Robin in one breath.

"Well… hum, I…" hesitated Ace, speechless by the way the little girl had just spoken.

"But Marco, he told me you are lovers, and that I shouldn't come and bother you. So that's why I just waited in the corridor." added Robin on the same monochord tone.

CRASH. Ace had just collapsed on the floor due to the comment.

"That… damn… Marco…" cursed Ace while standing up again, a vein bulging more and more on his forehead.

He clenched his fist and set it in fire, looking for his target around him – target whose laugh he had perfectly heard at the moment of his crashing – but of course, no Marco in his perimeter.

Ace let out a deep sigh, and realised that Robin was still staring at him, staring at him without flinching but without the least intention of pursuing their discussion.

_What does she want? Seriously, I'm not gifted for taking care of kids, me! Luffy, it was something else…_

"Do you want to come in to see Fuu? She's still sleeping, though…" finally asked Ace, out of options.

Robin nodded and stood up, following Ace back in the cabin.

The little girl's eyes shone with a new light when they encountered Fuu's silhouette, even if anxiety was veiling that light.

"She's going to sleep… for a long time?" asked Robin with concern.

"I don't know…" admitted Ace, massaging his neck with a worried look for the sleeping girl, "Every time she uses her Devil Fruit for too long or too strongly, she collapses…"

"So it's… my fault?" asked Robin with a trembling voice.

"No!" cut Ace with a determined look for the child, "That's not YOUR fault at all! That… baka… just do as she wants, always! And without considering a mere second the feelings of the people who care about her…"

"But… if I didn't exist…" cried Robin with tears welling up in her eyes, "She would have never…"

_My, my, my… She's really like that, is she not… Afraid of betrayal, hating her own existence, disavowed by people around her… Tsk, why do I feel like she looks like me as a kid? _sighed Ace with a compassionate smile.

"No!" cut again Ace, "She's probably told you so before, but in this world, there's nothing wrong with JUST existing! And people who tell you the contrary are just hopeless bastards…"

Robin was now silently crying, looking at Fuu sleeping in the bed with a mixture of sadness and happiness.

Ace gazed at the little girl who was bearing in his heart the same kind of shadows that he had borne for long years in his own. So he slowly raised his hand and intuitively patted the head of the child with a gentle smile.

"You know, Fuu is the kind of – stupid – person who will do anything for the people dear to her, without caring a single second about their origins, or about what other people can say or think about them…" laughed Ace with a tender gaze for the sleeping girl, "And it looks like you're dear to her, so… What about you? What do you think about Fuu?"

"I… like her…" hiccupped Robin while trying to stop her tears.

"Hum… me too…" mumbled Ace with a fugitive smile.

"So I… I don't want her to be hurt because of me!" cried Robin with concern.

"If you don't want the people dear to you to be hurt, then become strong enough to protect them! That's what having nakamas means, oy!" pitched a masculine voice from the door-step, its blond-haired owner phlegmatically leaning on the wooden frame of the door, his arms crossed on his chest.

"Marco!" realised Ace while turning back towards the door, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to pick up the little miss you entrusted me with, or course!" teased Marco in a laugh, "… but I didn't want to interrupt such a charming discussion…"

"Hey… how long have you been here listening to us?" asked Ace with a forced smile on his face.

"Long enough to have heard the 'Me too' part, heehee…" snickered Marco with a friendly smile.

"Yaro…" snorted Ace between his teeth while trying not to react to the insinuation of his nakama.

"So… little Robin, you're coming with us to have lunch?" asked Marco when finally letting Ace off the hook to look at the child with a more serious expression, "I promise you that when Fuu will wake up, we'll tell you. And meanwhile, there's not a lot of interesting things to do on-board, but you can just come and train with us, if you want to become stronger, it is…"

"I want to become stronger!" yelled Robin with determination, before glancing at Fuu with a worried look and tempering her declaration, "B… but I don't know…"

"Just go!" sighed Ace with a new pat on Robin's head, "If you don't make friends and just stay here worrying about her, Fuu will definitely be sad! And if you want to become stronger to protect your nakamas in the future, that's a good idea to go and train with everyone else!"

"And don't worry: here, you can trust everyone since we all LIKE Fuu!" added Marco with a cunning smile for Ace, "So since she entrusted you to us, you're our precious protégée! You can consider everyone on this ship as your nakama!"

Robin stared at Marco with a shocked expression, and her eyes soften a bit when she looked at Ace to corroborate in his eyes what had been said. She then gazed at Fuu, her eyes sparkling with a new resolve, and she finally nodded to the two Commanders in front of her, before following them outside the cabin with a last worried look for the person sleeping in the bed.

Marco's comment and Ace's advice seemed to have been effective, and starting that very moment, Robin acted with determination to build up her strength with everyone.

She opened up gradually to the crew, spending her days between training sessions focusing on her Devil Fruit, housework or card games with the rest of the pirates on-board, and the intensive reading of all the log books piling up in the navigator study, in search of details about the Poneglyphs blocks encountered by WhiteBeard's crew along their trips on Grand Line.

In a few days, under the protective gaze of Marco and Ace, Robin finally started smiling!

* * *

_Hum… The call… of seagulls…_

_Huh, my eyelids are still heavy… Ah, the salty smell of the ocean… Huh, but I still want to sleep… And it seems cold out there, while here… hum, it's warm… and soft… so comfortable… I want to stay like this a bit longer, just a little bit… Ah, no, definitely not: Robin is waiting for me, I need to wake up!_

And on this thought, Fuu briskly opened her eyes.

SHIN. A short second of realisation passed…

Fuu blinked several times, in order to be sure of what she was seeing.

_No… it can't be… it must be a mistake… But still, no matter how many times I reopen my eyes, this vision is still there… Why?_

Fuu couldn't rationally understand why she was seeing Ace's sleeping face at a mere centimetres from hers, nor why she had his arm as a pillow, and the least why all the blankets piled up on the bed were testifying that is was effectively a single bed but occupied by two people.

And while she was internally debating of the probability of this scene being either a dream or a hallucination, Ace started screwing his eyes and opening them gradually, until plunging them into the ones perfectly awake of Fuu.

_W… why? I'm dreaming, hallucinating… A dream… NOT A DREAM!_

Realising that the situation she was in was real, Fuu suddenly threw herself backward to get out of Ace's embrace, so hurriedly that she missed the edge of the bed and felt that she was losing her balance and falling towards the floor.

_Kyaaa… Huh, but…?_

"Hey, you okay?" asked Ace with a not-yet-awake voice.

Because despite his low blood pressure and his half-awake state, his reflexes were intact: he had caught Fuu at the last second before her fall, and was now holding her tight up on to his chest, on knees on the edge of the bed.

_Wa… Waa… Waaahhhh ! _thought Fuu, panicking as blood was starting to flush into her cheeks, and get to her head, _WAAAAAAAAAHHH !_

Fuu pushed back Ace with her both hands to try and free herself, but it was easier to make her own body move rather than Ace's, be it for their relative corpulence. Therefore, the reaction to her push instantly made her fall backward, dragging Ace down with her in her fall towards the bed foot.

BADABAM.

A short silence then followed the sound of their tumble, before the door of the cabin snapped open, letting Marco and Robin in, both of them alerted by the ruckus.

"Ace, what did…?" began Marco with a worried tone, before coming to a stop to dwell on the scene.

Fuu was lying on the floor, her hands still pinned on Ace's chest, one of her legs curled up around one of his. Ace, was lying on top of Fuu, topless as usual, one of his hands still behind Fuu's back, and the second pinned on the floor – a last reflex to try and absorb the shock of the fall.

"Oh, then… just resume where you were without minding us…" mumbled Marco, while covering Robin's eyes from one hand and closing back the door from the other.

BAM. Marco and Robin disappeared to the corridor.

SHIN. A little silence dropped onto the cabin.

Fuu and Ace glanced at each other, blinked, and then finally stared at the door with a desperate and embarrassed expression.

"It's a misunderstanding!" screamed them with a synchronised call, but Marco had already left with an amused chuckle.

* * *

**A FEW MINUTES LATER**

Upon their arrival in the dining room, Fuu and Ace had prepared themselves to face all the allusions and insinuations from their nakamas that could be expected after such an episode, but nothing came…

The rest of the table was simply partying to congratulate the recovery of their angelic guest, and no one sent them any crooked smile or knowing glance.

They looked at Marco with disbelief, but the First Commander of the Fleet just flashed them a faint smile filled with innuendo.

"Sigh…" breathed Fuu and Ace with relief, before finally sitting down at the table.

At seeing them approach, Robin stopped speaking with her neighbour to rush towards the recently recovered girl.

"Good morning!" said she with a radiant smile.

"Robin!" whispered Fuu with surprise, an intense smile of pure joy spreading out on her face.

_She's smiling… She's speaking with other people at the table and she's smiling! So… wonderful!_

On her right, Ace was sneakily gazing at the expression of the girl who had spent almost three days sleeping in his cabin, and who was now wholeheartedly smiling at the little girl she had saved from the World Government. He smiled faintly at the sight and went back to his second favourite activity: eating.

"Satisfied, now?" sardonically whispered Marco in Ace's ear.

Ace instantly stopped gulping down food, nearly chocked, and finally caught back his breath, before catching his neighbour by his collar to glare at him.

"For your information, it's a misunderstanding!" roared Ace while keeping his voice low to avoid unwanted attention, but still blushing at the recollection, "You heard the noise of the fall, don't you? So I don't have to draw you a picture!"

"Sure, sure!" mocked Marco while easily taking his shirt off Ace's grip, "I perfectly know that you don't have the guts to touch her…"

Ace's face flushed under the provocation of his nakama, and Marco laughed on the sly, since there wasn't anything that he enjoyed more than sparking off Ace on this subject, Fuu being one of the only topic on which the Second Commander of the Fleet would lose his cool.

"Y.O.U!" groaned Ace, "I'll…"

But Ace couldn't finish his sentence, because a black-haired little girl appeared between him and Marco, asking them with a smile what was on the board for today's training session.

SHIN. Ace's expression crumbled, and even Marco was taken aback.

_Hihihi… _laughed Fuu from the distance at the two Commanders of the Fleet being lectured by Robin about the seriousness of training.

She then quietly stood up and approached the biggest chair at the end of the table, where the Captain was having his breakfast, garnished with jars of sake.

"WhiteBeard," smiled Fuu when meeting the Yonkou's eyes, "Thank you again for your hospitality."

"Gurararara! You're welcome, of course!" laughed WhiteBeard with his atypical expression of doting father that he always had when talking with her, "I can't abandon my favourite daughter-in-law, can I…?"

"Well, I still wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me up until now…" smiled Fuu with a faint blush, "… and would you please stop this joke about a daughter-in-law?"

"Hum, 'up until now'…" paused the Captain, "So I must conclude that you want to leave soon…"

"Yes…" admitted Fuu with a sad yet determined expression, "I don't want to attract the attention of the World Government on your 'family', especially after what happened at Marine Ford: the timing couldn't be worst…"

Fuu glanced back at the black-eyed little girl who was happily chatting with the pirates at the table, already anticipating her new training session with them.

"Robin seems happy among you, and I regret to make her leave, but…" started Fuu with a melancholic tone.

"All the more, gurararara! Just join the crew!" wholeheartedly laughed WhiteBeard, "I've always wanted a powerful daughter-in-law and a smart grand-daughter!"

"Still the same joke, huh?" smiled Fuu while raising her eyebrows, "But… I know you understand why I am pulling away from you…"

"For Ace, hum…?" sighed the Yonkou while eyeing his fire-taming 'son', "Because of the new status of Ace: the status of Son of the Pirate King, cursed progeny of the worst criminal of this era… The Marines aren't going to leave him alone, I know it… But you know that we…"

"WhiteBeard," calmly cut Fuu with an apologetic and forgiving smile for the imposing Captain, "We all desire to protect the ones dear to us…"

Fuu's eyes wandered towards Ace and Robin, who were laughing at some joke from Marco across the table.

"And I know that your 'family' means everything to you, so…" pursued Fuu with a serene voice, "So if the entrance of Robin in this 'family' threatens its other members, I can't do such a thing to you…"

The unusual doting smile disappeared from WhiteBeard's face, and the imposing and serious expression of the Yonkou found his way back to his face, while he was considering the girl in front of him: the fragile girl who was still recovering her strength but was incomprehensively worrying about them rather than herself.

"I will travel with Robin, and I will take care of her as long as she will need someone to fly around the world with her…" softly smiled Fuu with a distant look, her eyes still pinned on the little girl, "I want to show her that she can find her place in this world, and that nobody can deny her right to be free… And one day, she will find her nakamas! She will find people ready to face the entire world to protect her! But I believe this day is not today: because you and your nakamas already have someone to protect…"

"Tsk, my stupid son mustn't have it easy with you…" gently muttered WhiteBeard behind his lips, while thinking that such considerations couldn't reasonably be from this world.

"I… pardon?" asked Fuu, a bit curious about the last sentence of the Captain, "I haven't heard…"

"That's nothing, gurararara!" declared WhiteBeard with a mysterious smile, before patting Fuu's head with this expression of doting father that was still making the rest of the crew crash in disbelief, "Just do me the favour of warning us before leaving, and take a good care of the kid!"

"I promise!" declared Fuu with her most angelic smile, before turning around to gaze in Robin's direction.

At this instant, Fuu's eyes met Ace's.

They looked at each other across the noisy and agitated dining room, one second seeming to spread its wings like an eternity. And finally, Ace smiled back at her, and unconsciously stood up from his chair to walk towards her, his eyes not leaving Fuu out of his sight as he was progressing in her direction, a strange determination shining inside his obsidian pupils.

_Ace? Wh…_

But at the moment Ace was going to reach Fuu, several pirates irrupted in the dining room, causing a huge ruckus at the entrance.

"ALERT! Marines! Dozens of Marine warships appeared on the horizon!" shouted two pirates to WhiteBeard.

"Dozens…?" asked WhiteBeard with an imposing tone, narrowing his eyes at the piece of information.

"Yes, Oyaji-san!" confirmed one of them, still panting and in a panicked tone, "And from what we've seen, the Marine Admirals are apparently there…. All three of them: they come to us on the leading ship! Battle is imminent!"

BADABAM. All chairs fall on the floor when the pirates present at the table violently stood up, clenching their fists and checking their weapons, before turning their head towards the man who was going to decide of everything.

"To all Commanders: go back to your divisions and organise your men! Everyone, get ready to repel the attack of the Marines! Marco, you take care of installing the line of defence on the Mody Dick! Jozu, Vista, you go and try to divert the warship of the Admirals!" roared WhiteBeard with a loud voice, giving orders to his crew through gestures, and directing his men to their posts.

He then turned back to glance at the girl in a white nightgown next to him, and who had instinctively hold Robin onto her upon hearing the news, her eyes staring blankly at the ruckus in the dining room.

"Ace, delegate the command of your division, you stay on this ship!" lastly ordered the Yonkou with a simple glance for his Second Commander.

_The Marines are already there? _was thinking Fuu in panic, blood having drained from her from anger and frustration, as she was clenching her fists until they turned white.

_Dozens of ships… and the three Admirals…? It… it can't be a Buster Call? Who could have requested it? And… for who…? Who are they coming for? For Robin…? Ace…?_

_No, if it were Ace, they would have come way sooner… So Robin? But how do they know…? Or is it that they want to take advantage of our presence here to make a double hit?_

_It must be the reason but… what can I do? It's my fault… their coming here is my fault! What can I do? What should I do? I should…_

"Fuu, and Robin, don't you dare move from this ship!" suddenly said WhiteBeard with a resolute tone, when seeing the conflicting lights in the girl's eyes, "And it's an order!"

TILT. Fuu clenched her teeth upon the underlying meaning of the order, and the thought that had started building up in her mind slowly vanished.

_Humph… How can he guess what I was thinking even before I thought it? _bitterly laughed Fuu but without daring to oppose the Yonkou's order, _Indeed, even if I could manage to run away with Robin or at least to divert the attention of the Admirals on me, they wouldn't leave this Fleet without taking the opportunity of making another catch…_

Fuu slowly raised her eyes, which instinctively wandered on Ace, Ace who was giving directions to his men for the defence with all the animated yet mature tone fitting a Commander of the Fleet.

_What should I do…? I just can't stay there and let them risk their lives for something I was the one to provoke!_

_Could I try something with my power to help them? Against an entire fleet of warships? Hum, do I even have enough energy left for that? I'm awake and standing, but I feel really weak… After the massive use of my power at Marine Ford, my brother told me I spent two weeks sleeping to recover…_

_Still, I'm sure I can do it, right now! Well, of course, Clow is going to lecture me hard-core, but who cares… That's not the most important for now… Yes… yes, I will do it! No matter what!_

The dining room had by that time been emptied, all pirates running back to their posts for the battle, and only Fuu, Robin, Ace, Marco and WhiteBeard were still present.

The First Commander of the Fleet was discussing with their Captain the details of the strategy to adopt once the Admirals will reach the Moby Dick – a trouble more acute due to the fact that they were presently in reduced number, their allies and a part of the Fleet being currently far away from them and impossible to contact in time.

"WhiteBeard, wait a second, I'm sure I can…" began Fuu while beginning to step in, but Ace instantly put his index on her lips, silently commanding her to keep quiet.

TILT. Marco and the Yonkou raised their eyes to look at their hazelnut-haired girl, their faces the picture of determination.

"If you were planning on proposing to use your power to get us out of it, that's out of question!" screeched WhiteBeard with an icy tone which made Fuu shiver despite herself.

"WHY?" couldn't help but cry she.

"You said yourself that everyone had people to protect…" reminded the Yonkou while giving a final nod to Marco and letting his Commander take leave, "I, I want to protect this family I've assembled, and I want to defend it with my own hands."

The declaration made all the frustration in Fuu's eyes and heart crumble and vanish, and she felt suddenly ashamed of having thought that such a man would depend on – or even accept when offered – the help of someone else to protect the ones dear to him.

"I don't think I need to say more for you to understand…" sighed WhiteBeard when seeing the change in his interlocutor's expression, "We are pirates, so we live as such: roaming free on the oceans while protecting our dreams and our nakamas!"

"I agree…" sighed Ace, his determined eyes gazing at Fuu, "Personally, I don't care if I'm wounded in a battle: that would be when fighting for our honour of pirates!"

Fuu felt a bitter relent spreading in her mouth at such a thought, and her eyes became involuntarily tainted with the colour of despair when looking straight at the obsidian eyes gazing at her.

"But…" pursued Ace with a slight blush hidden behind the shadow of his black hair, "If what we fight for is hurting herself for us, then everything would be meaningless…"

Fuu's eyes widened and brightened unconsciously as she was trying to see the expression of the one who was facing her, telling her such a thing.

But the ephemeral moment ended when a small and trembling hand catching hers made her come back to reality, and she lowered her head towards the little girl clinging to her with a guilty expression.

"Fuu…" implored Robin with a small voice, "Everyone here is going to fight?"

"Yes." Tried to answer Fuu as calmly as she could, while kneeling down to be at Robin's height.

"Are they going to be hurt?" asked Robin with a deathly worried look.

"No, they're all very strong, do you remember?" tried to laugh Fuu to comfort the child but her heart was also in turmoil, even if she was taking upon herself not to show it to the child.

"Is it… is it my fault?" cried Robin with a regretful tone.

"No!" cut the powerful voice of WhiteBeard, "They're Marines, and we're pirates: as long as it will remain like this, we will fight each other!"

And the rough hand of the Yonkou patted the black-haired head of the little girl to give more impact to his words.

Fuu looked at the imposing Captain with a grateful smile.

_Hum… As if we would let you stand out there alone! Pirates or Marines do not matter: being nakamas, it means fighting… together!_

"Robin," began Fuu, a trembling smile impossible to interpret floating on her lips as she was trying to build up her own resolve to share it with the child, "What do you want to do, in the future?"

"Huh? Hum, I… I want… I want to discover the Truth behind the World History and protect it with my nakamas!" said Robin with a decisive tone, her eyes looking indomitable.

_Good answer… _thought Fuu while her smile and resolve deepened.

"So, Robin, would you fight for this dream?" asked she in a neutral tone.

"O… of course!" yelled Robin, very motivated.

"Then… I will support you until you find your nakamas, I promise you! But the battle begins today…" said Fuu with determination, placing her hands on the little girl's shoulders to look at her straight in the eyes, "… because we must fight for what our hearts believe in!"

The declaration echoed in the empty dining room a few seconds, Robin still as determined as before, Fuu still as resolved, Ace still sighing with an amused and tender look for them, and WhiteBeard still laughing behind his beard.

Fuu then stood up, slowly, determinedly, and stared at the Yonkou and his Commander with a challenging smile.

"Let me fight!" requested she with an unconquerable look, "I give you my word that I won't do too much… Besides, no matter what you will say, I can't just wait for you on the side-lines without fighting!"

"Gurararara… as you wish!" answered WhiteBeard with a conniving laugh, positively surprised to see the hazelnut-haired girl ready to battle.

"No but really…" sighed Ace, crooking a smile while readjusting his hat.

He then gave a pat to the black-haired little girl, a tender smile to the stubborn older one, and a determined glance to his Captain, before walking towards the door with determination, WhiteBeard, Fuu and Robin following him with the same resolve.

"Let's go!" roared Ace while crossing the door, enflaming several parts of his body to ready to battle.


	8. Story III, Paradox, Conviction

**THE DAY THE TIME OF ONE PIECE GOT BENDED, MAKING THE STORY REWRITE ITSELF**

…

Fighting for what our Hearts believe in

…

**NEW WORLD, MOBY DICK**

The call of the seagulls was covered by the sound of the raging canons from the warships, and the waves were already washing away the rubbles of the losers of the fights between pirates and Marine soldiers, in this huge battle against the WhiteBeard's Fleet.

On the deck of the Moby Dick, the battle was fierce.

Even if the white whale had escaped the majority of the surrounding Marine ships and had been somehow kept out of cannon reach thanks to the excellence of the navigators on-board, the same couldn't be said for the other ships, and the WhiteBeard's Pirates were witnessing in live the terror of the fire power of a Buster Call.

The prompt reactions of Jozu and Vista were barely enough to keep the Moby Dick out of any serious trouble, and it was costing them all their vigilance in this fight where they were clearly outnumbered.

On the main deck, Marco had shouted the order to switch to the fourth plan – which wasn't a good sign since he had only discussed three of them with WhiteBeard, but any good Commander needed to make out strategies as the situation was evolving – so the Commanders present on-board had started challenging head on the three Marine Admirals, while their subordinates were sending the rest of their troops overboard.

WhiteBeard himself had joined the heated fight, but unable to make full use of his strength and Devil Fruit as the battle was happening on his own ship.

And in the midst of this chaos, Fuu and Robin were defending themselves in duet, sufficiently clear-minded not to provoke opponents of an Admiral calibre, but still supporting their nakamas in their own fights and sending flying any Marine stupid or coward enough to target them.

_Phew… There's no end to it! But I must admit Robin's Devil Fruit power is very useful and quite frightening, especially since Marco, Jozu and the others had taught her catches, clutches and other holds to neutralise enemies…_

_But still, she has trouble dealing with several opponents at the time. I guess she will need time to get used to it before she can crush tens of them under her hands… So for now, I'd better support her…_

Despite all her previous resolve, Fuu was still unable to use attacks, an awful feeling crushing her insides at each fighter – ally or foe – she was seeing agonizing on the battlefield, let alone thinking about hurting them herself.

She had stopped herself from using her Devil Fruit to attack countless times already, swallowing back the acid after-taste spreading in her mouth every time she was thinking about the probability of hurting deeply or even killing her opponent.

Her hesitation had even nearly cost her a lot, and she had to thank Marco for a flying kick which had propelled out of reach a Marine Fuu had spared for thinking he was now harmless but who had on his side unsheathed a dagger to attack her once she had turned her back to him.

So while mentally cursing her own lack of resolve, Fuu had went back to fight, but changing her strategy from one of attack to one of defence and support.

She was now alternating between repulsive magnetic fields, which were rebuffing her attackers out of sight, reflective barriers casted onto the WhiteBeard's Pirates and countering attacks launched on them, and she was always maintaining a light shield in dome around Robin and herself, so that the little girl could focus on attacks while staying out of harm.

But all of that was even coming with a cost…

_Huf, huf… I'm already out of breath even when using only simple 'spells'…_

_Tsk, I don't think I could use more powerful barriers without risk… If I collapse, Robin will end up alone on this battlefield, without protection, and that's out of the question!_

Fuu was eyeing their surroundings with concern, trying to determine who had the upper-hand for now between the Marines and the WhiteBeard's Pirates.

From what she could see, the battle was now on a standstill, the balance between the conflicting forces not allowing any party to shift the scale on one side nor the other.

Indeed, combatants had gradually found opponents at their level, and fights were dragging on and becaming more and more devastating.

At the moment, WhiteBeard was confronting Aokiji, while Marco and Ace were challenging Akainu. The other Commanders were busy with the other Marine warships and the rest of the normal fighters were eyeing the clash between leaders to determine who would win these decisive battles.

"Hiken!" called Ace while a huge fire discharge was sent flying towards the Admiral to distract him and create an opening for Marco who was dealing with Akainu hand-to-hand – or rather immortal-flames-to-magma peppered with Kenbunshoku Haki.

_Ace… Ace is fighting… Akainu? _Realised Fuu while a turmoil or bad feelings where suddenly ruching through her mind, as if some forgotten memories was trying to fight back their way to the surface, _NO! No, everything but that! I… I don't really know why, but I have a bad feeling about it… a really bad feeling…_

"Robin!" called Fuu while observing their surroundings with precaution, "Ace and Marco are in trouble! We're going to pull closer to where they are and try to support them!"

And Fuu, trying to spare her strength for the rest of the battle, momentarily broke her shield 'spell' to seize the little girl by her waist and run towards the two Commanders, who were fighting at the other end of the deck.

"How blessed I am… Finally an opening…!" smiled Admiral Kizaru, appearing within a fraction of seconds behind her.

Fuu barely had time to turn her eyes towards the yellow-suit-wearing man in her back.

_Light… speed…_

In a gesture so quick that it resembled a light beam, the Admiral pinched up a small stone into Fuu's shoulder, so strongly that it embedded into her flesh like a bullet, before Fuu was sent hurtling to the ground by another hit on her neck, while Robin fell painfully on the deck.

"Kyaa!" screamed Fuu out of pain, unable to restore her light shield around Robin and her, while she was trying to examine the strange grey stone deeply dug into her shoulder, that was heavily bleeding.

_Ugh… That… That thing is…_

"Being unable to use one's power is kind of bothersome, is it not?" phlegmatically mentioned Kizaru while looking at Fuu crawling back on her knees.

_Damn it! Kairoseki… Usually, I could have wished for such a small stone to disappear from my shoulder… but considering my present strength, this pebble is more than enough to paralyse me… Grr! Such a jinx!_

"There's no helping it, is it not?" sighed Kizaru in a neutral yet icy tone, "You couldn't expect us to let you interfere with our duty once more, could you not?"

Kizaru was now calmly walking towards Fuu, not even bothered by the duels on his way, attacks going through him without a single influence on his Logia body.

_Ro… Robin is…?_

Fuu had managed to stand back on her feet, somehow, one hand pinned on her shoulder to try and stop the bleeding, while the other was searching a weapon in the rubbles of the previous fights, as she was slowly walking back to distance herself from Robin in order not to involve the little girl in a battle of this level.

"Not after having made the execution of Hiken no Ace fail, huh…!" moaned Kizaru with a glance for the aforementioned man who was fighting at the other hand of the deck.

In panic, Fuu tried to use this opportunity to catch a lost sword pinned in the wooden floor of the deck to defend herself, but the Admiral was quicker than her, and knocked her backwards with the residual shockwave caused by the light-speed kick which had broken the sword in the middle.

"Ugh…" endured Fuu while glancing over from left to right to find an escape, before noticing some black dots in her field of vision, as a rusty familiar yet unwelcomed taste was spreading in her mouth.

…_My lip is… bleeding…? He didn't even hit me directly – probably out of pity – and yet it makes me bleed that much? Grr… without powers, I definitely can't measure up! If that damned Kizaru wants it, I am dead for sure…_

"Not after having saved the Akuma no Ko of Ohara, huh…!" pursued Kizaru with his typical my-pace tone, while glancing at the black-haired little girl who was trembling on the deck at a few metres from him.

_Robin! _thought Fuu while throwing a launch at the Admiral with the broken sword, hoping to make him focus on his previous prey.

But Kizaru merely gave her a short glance, kicked the sword away and sent her another – soft – hit in her ribs, making her collapse on her knees while he himself hadn't even needed to take his hands out of the pockets of his suit.

"Kof, kof…" spitted out Fuu while wiping away a salty and reddish liquid from her lips.

_Ugh… the taste of… blood… Grr…_

"FUU!" yelled Robin while diving on Kizaru to try stopping him.

_Robin? Wh…_

"Goodness gracious, how bothersome…" sighed Kizaru while dusting the child away with a mere back-feet gesture.

"Fuu!" yelled once more Robin while trying to use her Devil Fruit power to stop Kizaru, but reaping only bruises along the process, where her duplicated arms had been hit by the Admiral.

"ROBIN!" shouted Fuu, in rage, while crawling on the wooden railing of the ship to get back on her feet and confront the Admiral, "You… I FORBID YOU TO TOUCH HER!"

But the Admiral had already abandoned the child to get back to her without a single care for the warning.

"There's no helping it, is it not?" sighed he while catching her at her throat, lifting her up as is her weight was nothing.

_Huf… huf! I… I can't breathe!_

"Not after having found out in a notebook left by your brother that your Devil Fruit has the power of destroying this entire world on a mere WISH!" finished Kizaru while lifting Fuu over the railing, his relaxed eyes black with determination.

_They… know?_

"Fuu… Fuu!" was yelling Robin, the arms duplicated by her power still getting hurt without having the single interference on the Admiral, "FUUUUUUUUU!"

TILT. The powerful scream made all the combatants on the deck – included WhiteBeard, Ace and Marco – turn back, but only to see Kizaru holding Fuu in mid-air, before abruptly dropping her over the railing.

Their faces painted with the colours of stupefaction and horror, the pirates could only watch, helplessly, as Fuu was falling towards the dark-blue waters of Grand Line.

_Ugh… Not the sea… _thought Fuu, closing her eyes of pain as she was hitting the waves.

* * *

_BLACK_

* * *

SHIN. On the deck, the indescribable shambles of the fights had been like put in pause, for a second or two, everyone shocked by the disappearance of the girl in the sea.

The terror-stricken pirates were staring at the foam bubbling up from the place where Fuu had hit the water.

WhiteBeard's eyes had widened with a contained rage as he clenched his fists and turned towards Kizaru with a deathly glare, tension becoming palpable in the air between them, abandoning completely Aokiji to walk towards the other Admiral.

But the oddest reaction was from Marco who, after a couple of seconds of stupor, suddenly realised Ace had gone missing too… before finally spotting him at the other end of the deck, sprinting towards the railing before jumping over board.

"I'm counting on you, Marco!" shouted Ace while diving without a single hesitation in the waves.

Dumbfounded, Marco then looked at his hands, and realised that he was now holding the end of a rope… rope whose other end was solidly attached around Ace's waist.

"IS HE KIDDING ME?" yelled Marco while dashing to the railing with concern, clenching his hands around the rope.

Ace had dived exactly where Fuu had fallen, and he was now searching her amidst the surrounding depths.

Daylight was faintly filtering through the layers of dark water, but the rubbles of the numerous battles made the search difficult, not to mention the fact that Ace couldn't swim either.

He still finally noticed the white silhouette of Fuu slowly sinking towards abysses, and dashed – or rather made himself sink more quickly – in her direction. Managing to catch one of her hands, he hauled her into his arms, before pulling onto the rope to give Marco the signal of bringing them up.

* * *

**A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER, MAIN DECK OF THE MOBY DICK**

"Fuu! FUU!" was calling Ace while patting her cheeks, "Come on, wake up!"

Ace had slumped on the deck, in a puddle of sea water near the railing of the ship, holding an inanimate Fuu in his arms under the cautious watch of a cordon of Marines ready to aim at them.

He couldn't hear the the screams of Robin struggling under the catch of a Marine. He hadn't realised yet the dire situation his nakamas were in. He was barely conscious about what was happening around him, focusing only on the face of the one he was holding onto his chest.

"Hey, Fuu!" was panicking Ace, while approaching his ear to the mouth of the drenched girl.

_You've got to be kidding: she's not breathing? Come on! Fuu… FUU!_

* * *

_WHITE_

* * *

_Kof… Air… Kof, kof… The taste of… salt… kof kof kof! Huh, water…_

Fuu coughed several mouthful of sea water, and was starting to blink, under the relieved expression of Ace.

_A… Ace…? Why? Oh, I remember… I fell in the sea… Ah! Kizaru, that damn… he… Ugh…_

Fuu tried to sit up while looking around her with angry and worried eyes, but promptly lost her balance, and fell back in Ace's arms, coughing hard.

"Don't move… Stay calm for a bit…" tried to temper Ace.

"Good heavens!" sighed the voice of a yellow-suit-wearing man not far away from them, "You're merely postponing your fate… Saving her from drowning and reanimating her will only serve to lead her to her execution platform…"

In her blurry vision, Fuu could now see the scenery around her: Ace, drenched, who was holding her while clenching his teeth to the comment of the Admiral… the aforementioned Admiral among Marines soldiers, their weapons out of their sheaths and watching them in half a circle… WhiteBeard, Marco and the others, out of sight, their expressions being a mixture of relief, resignation and anxiousness…

Her mind wasn't fully assimilating the information yet, but the WhiteBeard Pirates were in a dire situation.

The whole chain of catastrophes had merely taken a dozen of minutes, but with deardful consequences.

On the other side of the cordon guarding Ace and Fuu, on their knees in the corner of the deck and getting heavily chained, was the rest of WhiteBeard's crew. They had been made prisoners after their fight, the Commanders and Marco included, since he had only managed to pull their Second Commander out of the water at the price of numerous sacrifices… WhiteBeard himself was now under the watch of Aokiji, three layers of reinforced Kairoseki handcuffs around his wrists and his body partly frozen, while the deep wound on his torso – that he had received at Marine Ford – had reopened and was draining a huge part of his stamina.

Akainu was giving orders by Den-Den Mushi to the other warships to stop fire and sort out the mess for the transport of the prisoners. Kizaru had been patiently waiting to see if his opponent had survived drowning, with occasional glances for a child who was struggling against her guard. Robin had indeed prevented from running towards the Second Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet and the precious lot he had saved from the waves by the Commandant of the Cipher Poll who was still receiving some slaps from her duplicated arms as he was trying to find Kairoseki handcuffs small enough not to let the child's hands slide out of them.

_Ro… Robin… _realised Fuu when finally managing to make her eyes focus on something.

"Robin…" mumbled she with difficulty, her eyes pinned on the child and trying to crawl to get a better look at the situation.

"Humph! So you're still alive?" sneered the tall soldier still fighting against the little girl's power.

_The Cipher Poll man who came at our home…? He actually took the trip as far as the New World to hunt us? Ugh… _thought Fuu while trying hard to move her body, but it wasn't responding to its owner with diligence, _Then he's… he's the one who asked for this Buster Call? They can do that?_

"I must admit I underestimated you!" snorted the Commandant with an apologetic smile for the Admirals, "But there is a privilege only given to the one commanding the ninth unit of the Cipher Pol, and it's to request a Buster Call when needed! Coming as far as here to hide the Child of the Devil was pointless!"

A murmur rose from the captured pirates as they heard the mention of the rumoured-and-not-supposed-to-exist CP9.

"Justice will always prevail!" merely answered Akainu with a sombre tone, "This criminal needed to be arrested and removed from this world, in order to protect its citizens."

Fuu's eyes widened with horror when she saw that Robin had started trembling under the term 'devil'. She clenched her fingers on Ace's shoulder to try and sit up, trembling too but with rage.

"Hum… But really… So troublesome…" sighed Kizaru while looking at Robin, then Fuu and Ace, before pausing on the drenched hazelnut-haired girl still staring at the child, "Oh, you shouldn't worry only for her, my dear, because you will share the same fate. You are also a threat for this world, are you not? The Akuma no Ko, Hiken no Ace and you, the three of you will die in order to protect the universal peace! Together until death do you apart, is it not?"

_Wh… what the… _was struggling Fuu to try to sit up and glance at the Admiral, but the Kairoseki stone nailed in her shoulder was poisoning her body and all her attempts were doomed to fail.

"We should get going…" remarked Aokiji while massaging his neck with a lazy and bored expression, "One of the warship forwarded the information that some other WhiteBeard Pirates ships were starting to converge towards our position."

"Really…?" considered Kizaru with his phlegmatic tone, "They can be quite stubborn, huh… But there won't be another chance for them, like at Marine Ford…"

His relaxed eyes moved from WhiteBeard to Ace with a shared expression.

"Another execution platform awaits you, Hiken no Ace. Adieus seem suitable, are they not?" muttered he with a neutral expression, "I hope you enjoyed this last kiss from your precious girl."

Ace's body tensed and his eyes narrowed, while his hands were imperceptibly tightening around the one he was holding onto him.

_Huh…? Wh… what? A kiss? What is he talking about? _thought Fuu with a puzzled glance for Ace, on whose shoulders she was holding tight to try and stay up.

But Ace only gave her an embarrassed and resigned smile, tainted with regrets.

"And you, my dear, you should also bid farewell to the ones dear to you, I believe…" advised Kizaru with a compassionate yet neutral tone, "Even if no well fare awaits any of you where we are going…"

Fuu saw Ace's eyes switch colours under the last comment, burning up with a fire that will never surrender without fighting. He clenched his fists in Fuu's back, instinctively holding the girl closer again to him, while glancing briefly at the rows of his nakamas made prisoners at the other end of the deck.

_Ace…?_

Following his, Fuu's gaze wandered on WhiteBeard and the others, and a strong bitter taste started spreading out in her mouth as she realized the situation everyone was in. Bitterness extended when she saw Robin fighting against the claws of the Commandant of the Cipher Pol, who was apparently enjoying giving her payback for her Devil Fruit tricks now that she was deprived from them due to Kairoseki handcuffs. And resentment deepened when she felt Ace trembling of rage and regrets.

_Be… because of me… because I came here… because I made them involved… But also, because of the Marines! Because of Kizaru… and this man from the Cipher Pol… this Buster Call…_

_I… I hate them! How dare they do that to Robin? And they also want to execute Ace? Never, I won't… I won't accept that! I'd rather die! I'm going to slaughter them… I'm going to…_

A faint sparkle of her Devil Fruit power deadened in her body a the same micro-second it was created.

_Ugh, if I didn't have this Kairoseki stone in the shoulder, I… If only this stone wasn't there…_

"So what? We're not going to wait for the lovebirds to tell each other adieu before leaving, are we?" asked the Commandant of the Cipher Pol while looking at Kizaru with disbelief, before finding the situation quite hilarious and turn towards the two of them with a sadistic and mocking smirk, "Oh, after all, it would only be justice to give them some time for their pitiful efforts! Come on, then, please proceed! And be quick, gyahahaha!"

The behaviour of the Marines had definitely made Fuu snap out of her fatigue, and she was now clinging on Ace's neck to sit up, her back still turned towards the railing of the ship but straight in indignation, and her teeth clenched with rage.

"Ace…" whispered Fuu to his ear while controlling her panting to make sense, "Ace, don't say anything, but please listen to me… The wound on my shoulder… there's a pebble inside… Kairouseki… please, I want you to pull it… please… We don't have time, so…"

"…" couldn't really answer Ace, surprised at first to hear that Fuu had a Kairoseki stone dug in her body, and then worried to see how deep the wound on her shoulder blade was.

But anger has also made him prompter to action then to discussion, and he settled for holding Fuu closer up against his chest to hide her back from the cordon of Marines, before palpating her shoulder in search for the Kairoseki stone.

"A last hug, how romantic!" teased the Boss of the Cipher Poll with a bad-natured grin, "Please don't mind us, if you wish some more demonstrative embraces…"

But the comment barely reached Ace or Fuu, as she was trying to hide the pain caused by the extraction of the stone.

_Ugh… That's way more painful than what I thought… I will end up screaming!_

Fuu was desperately clinging to Ace's neck not to collapse of pain.

She was burying her face in his shoulder not to show her grimacing face to the Marines.

She was trying to think about a way of saving everyone once her power will be available, but couldn't even think of any for the moment.

She could only saw with anguish as the Admirals were starting to check the surrounding battleships and give orders to their men for the transport of the prisoners.

_Ugh… if I scream, they will realise… if they realise, everything is finished… no! Definitely not! Some time… just more time… a diversion, anything!_

"If you're planning on kissing him goodbye, my dear, I would hurry up, if I were you, huh…" suddenly rang up the phlegmatic voice of Admiral Kizaru, "We are leaving, I am afraid…"

_Anything…_

"Ace…" whispered Fuu while rising up her face to look at him, her traits tensed with pain, "I'm sorry… Really sorry but… no matter what… dig it out now, I beg you!"

And she crooked her fingers in Ace's black hair to cling herself towards his face, before crushing her lips on his, hiding the pain of her throbbing shoulder into the kiss, under the utterly amazed look of all the pirates present, and making even the Marine soldiers look away.

In contrast, surprise lasted a mere second for Ace, before he lifted Fuu up on to him from one arm, while the other was going deeper into the wound to catch the Kairoseki stone.

_Ugh… _thought Fuu while wincing of pain.

"Ooh… Here it comes!" laughed the Commandant of the Cipher Pol with a voyeuristic look for the two pirates, "So even demons have feelings, I guess… Humph, doesn't matter, gyahahaha! Criminals like you must be erased from this earth. It would have been way better if you had never existed…"

Robin started trembling at this declaration, and the Marine looked down at the child with a malicious and condescending glare.

"Of course, all pirates here have a bigger bounty than yours, but you are way more dangerous." said he in a poisonous tone while having a look around him before coming back to his little interlocutor, "A Buster Call just for a demon like you! If you had never existed, all of that wouldn't be happening… We came here for you and even made some benefits from it, all thanks to you"

"Oy!" roared Marco from the other side of the deck, before getting hit in the stomach by one of his guard, right on a wound he had received during the battle, making him fall on his knees again.

Across her eyelids half-closed by the pain and the kiss, Fuu saw tears welling up in Robin's eyes, and the little girl let herself fall on the deck, regrets and culpability tangible around her.

Fuu sickened at such a sight, and anger started boiling up in her body, making her mind stop.

"The bad-natured offspring of the Demons of Ohara doesn't deserve to live!" pursued the Commandant of the Cipher Pol in a harsh tone, "You're a plague for everyone in this world!"

_Sh… shut up… _internally cried Fuu, mad with rage at seeing Robin's eyes darken at each inhuman comment.

But her inner rant came to an abrupt stop as she felt the stone of Kairoseki gradually coming out of her shoulder, making her want to yelp out of pain, but Ace hold her more strongly onto him, chocking her scream into their kiss.

"You should have expected it, all of you, when deciding to protect this evil germ!" sneered the Commandant while turning to WhiteBeard, his voice filled with disgust, "This kid is a monster who had better never existed! Her existence itself is the worst sin against this world!"

_Shut up… _"SHUT UP!" yelled Fuu, breaking the kiss at the very second Ace pulled out the Kairoseki stone from her shoulder.

SHIN. A short silence welcomed her shout, and everyone's eyes started to converge towards the girl who had been 'romantically' kissing Hiken no Ace goodbye a mere second before.

"Just shut up!" cried Fuu, still panting, her eyes filled with tears of pain and of rage, "I forbid you… forbid you to speak about Robin like that!"

_I hate him! What does he think he is saying to a CHILD?_

"Ooh, but it is not only the little Nico Robin, my dear…" calmly cut Admiral Kizaru, "You, Hiken no Ace, Mugiwara no Luffy… You are all destructive existences who would plunge this world into chaos if we'd let you roam freely… How bothersome… This kind of weeds that nobody needs, it's better to destroy it by its roots, is it not?"

SNAP. Fuu had definitely heard too much to hope keeping her calm anymore. Her mind had cracked up.

_B… BASTARDS!_

… _I hate them… I hate them all! Why… can't they understand? This kind of bastards… disappear! Out of my sight! Just disappear!_

"You're wrong…" thundered Fuu while trying to focus her attention on Robin, the little girl crying on the deck after having heard so many cruel statements, "YOU'RE WRONG!"

Fuu was starting to lose focus, swallowed up by her rage and the throbbing pain from her wound.

Still trembling, she was clinging onto Ace's shoulder in order not to lose consciousness, but her mind was already lost…

_If only they had not come!_

_Just go back from where you're coming from! Disappear! Why are you coming here to dispense your 'Justice' as if you knew the Truth? You would have better never to leave Marine Ford!_

_Go back and stay there for good! Everybody has the right to live! It's not a sin just to exist! So disappear… just disappear! DISAPPEAR!_

FLASH. Suddenly, an intense white and blue light emerged from Fuu's chest and started swelling up, spreading at full speed, soon encompassing the spectators, the Marines, the surrounding warships and all the Fleet into an immense sphere of incandescent light.

"Impossible, she was supposed to… the Kairoseki…" mumbled the Commandant of the Cipher Pol with a dumbfounded expression and a worried look for the yellow-suit wearing Admiral who had previously told him that the power of Fuu had been neutralised.

"Good heavens…" sighed Kizaru, as phlegmatic as usual but with an ounce of resignation upon seeing the aforementioned stone roll out from Ace's hand in the blinding flash of light.

FLASH. In a gigantic burst of light, everyone's field of vision became pure white, and all Marines – be it soldiers, Admiral, warships or material – melted away in the light.

When the sphere of bluish light finally resorbed in a crackle of stardust, all trace from the Marines had been erased from the scenery – no soldier, no shackles on the prisoners, no ships… as if they had broken camp while taking with them all proves of their passing… as if the ball of light had absorbed all that was Marine and had made them disappear…

BAM. And Fuu fell heavily in Ace's arms.

"Fuu!" screamed Robin, hence free from her previous guard and handcuffs, running towards her with a panicked look.

At the other end of the deck, the pirates were looking at each other with disbelief, still too shocked to do anything else.

The nurses had though reacted more quickly than the rest of them and run across the deck to prepare for treatment.

"She… she… to them…" mumbled Marco, abashed, while gazing at the girl in his nakama's arms.

"No. At least I don't think so…" answered WhiteBeard with a perplexed look for Fuu, while considering: _If THAT was one of her wishes, even if she lost the control of her power, she couldn't have wished to kill them… She's not that kind of girl… She could have wished to send them to hell, considering the rage shining in her eyes, but killing them…_

* * *

**GRAND LINE, MARINE FORD**

"Beeeeh!" called a goat, attracting the attention of a high-ranked officer wearing a white coat and a seagull-helmet.

"Hum?" reacted Sengoku and his interlocutor who stopped chewing crackers to follow the goat's gaze.

Past the tall windows of the Fleet Admiral's Office, one could see the bay of Marine Ford, which had been under intense rebuilding for the past months. And some very recent adjunction had come to colour the scenery.

"W.H.A.T...?" Sengoku shouted, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets at the sight of the numerous battleships which had joined the already-ranged Fleet in the blink of an eye, battleships on which a couple of Commandants were ranting and bustling like crazy - while Akainu was sucking it in like a volcano ready-to-erupt, Aokiji was already back to his nap, unconcerned, and Kizaru was sighing to his Heavens it was indeed 'a bothersome happening'.

"Gahahahaha!" the Vice-Admiral sitting in front of Sengoku was laughing hard, crumbs of crackers flying out of his mouth under the bursts of laughter.

"Don't tell me... YOUR DAMN FAMILY AGAIN, GARP!" yelled Sengoku by reflex, before tilting mid-way that it wasn't quite right, although he instinctively couldn't help associating such a troublesome unexpected crazyish way of behaving to anyone else.

"She's not, heehee..." calmly chuckled Garp with an amused glance for the scene in the Bay, before putting another handful of crackers in his mouth and mumbling in a smile, "Though she could be..."

* * *

**NEW WORLD, MODY DICK DECK**

"Tend to the injured ones and be ready to sail! We're not going to wait for them to come back…" roared WhiteBeard with his impressive Yonkou tone, "Anchors aweigh!"

And amidst the chaos of chaos caused by everyone resuming their post with more or less focus and more of less wounds, the Captain and his First Commander of Fleet then approached from the girl who had managed to free them and their crew with such a powerful display of power, but with what consequences…

"Fuu!" Robin called with a worried voice, "Fuu, are you okay?"

"Of… course…" Fuu mumbled while forcing herself to open her eyes, in order not to worry the little girl more than she already was, even if Ace's eyes were widening at such an obvious lie.

"It was all my fault… They said they were here for me…" Robin cried while cuddling up near Fuu.

"Of course not…" Fuu retorted, before slowly raising her hand to pat the child's head, "Robin… what is… your dream?"

"Discover the Truth hidden in the Poneglyph History and protect it!" automatically answered the little girl between two sobs.

"Good…" commented Fuu with an exhausted tone.

"Fuu… stop speaking, please…" ordered Ace with a worried tone, still holding her onto his chest.

"The nurses are coming, oy…" added Marco with a concerned look for the girl, while WhiteBeard was calling some medical staff over with a small wave of his hand, telling them not to worry about his own condition and rather to do something for the weaker among them.

But Fuu couldn't really hear what everyone was telling her, her senses starting to get blurry.

She just gazed at the bruises on Robin's arms, that the child had reaped when trying to help her against Kizaru and then against the despicable Cipher Pol Commandant.

In a mumble barely audible, Fuu pronounced her healing 'spell', and kissed Robin's forehead with her silvery-glowing lips, treating the little girl's wounds through a gentle aura of silver light.

"Hey Fuu! Stop, that's enough!" begged Ace when realising what she was doing, worried sick as he was feeling the temperature of Fuu's body dropping rapidly within his arms.

"Sorry… Ace…" sighed Fuu with a faint smile, "I promised you… and still…"

Fuu slowly raised her hand, lightly touching the wound on Ace's arch of his eyebrow – wound caused by a lava fist barely dodged, and proving that between the two Logias of Fire, his flames couldn't measure up against the destroying power of magma.

"Still… you are… hurt…" regretted Fuu in a tired sigh.

The rest of the pirates – who had not already been requested for manoeuvre – had started gathering around Ace and Fuu, deeply worried for the fate of the girl, especially since the doctors on-board were shaking their head in helplessness.

"Just a scratch, baka… Don't worry about that!" tried to joke around Ace, concern making him paler and paler.

Fuu wanted to tease him that he was starting to get rusty since Marine Ford, but it was now impossible for her to keep her eyes open.

She smiled, softly… her eyelids closed down, slowly… and her hand fell down on the deck, inert…

"Fuu…" shook her Ace, his body trembling of despair, "Fuu?"

Everyone stared with alarmed eyes at the inanimate body of Fuu.

SHIN. Silence fell on the deck of the Moby Dick…

But lastly:

"Zzz…" rang out the slow breathing of Fuu on Ace's chest.

"She is sleeping…" announced Robin with a calm tone.

CRASH. All spectators crashed on the deck, Ace included.

"What the… How can she just fall asleep like that?" Ace grumbled when regaining his composure, really annoyed.

_NO WAY! You're worst! You fall asleep even the middle of a meal or a conversation… _thought his nakamas in unison, a huge drop of sweat appearing at the back of their head.

"No, but really!" Ace exclaimed with a clumsy smile for the culprit sleeping in his arms.

_Baka… _he thought while holding Fuu a bit closer on to him, despite the nurses telling him to let go.


	9. Story III, Paradox, Heart

**THE DAY THE TIME OF ONE PIECE GOT BENDED, MAKING THE STORY REWRITE ITSELF**

**…**

When Time blurs, the colour of our Hearts remains

…

**GRAND LINE, MOBY DICK, FUU'S CABIN**

_Hum… the warmth of sunlight…_

Fuu opened her eyes a little, and gazed at the wooden ceiling.

The slow rolling of the boat was blending with the balmy rays of the morning sunlight filtering through the porthole.

_How long did I sleep…? Huh…_

_Ouch, I'm still stiff everywhere… Ah! And my nightgown is smashed to bits, no! That was my favourite nightgown… This damned Kizaru, grr… I'll remember him! Oh, and I remember… the salty taste of water… Ace digging out the Kairoseki stone from my shoulder… my losing control of my power because of anger, brutally teleporting the Marines back to Marine Ford…_

_How stupid of me, Clow is going to chew me really hard for it… never-minding the consequences for my health… I still remember the worried expression of Ace and Robin… Huh, Robin?_

Fuu had just detected the little Robin, snuggled up against her under the sheets, and sleeping.

_Robin…_

_I must have frightened her, by collapsing like that… although I told her I will protect her… How arrogant of me, tsk… I really deserve to slap myself for causing so much worry to her and Ace… Huh, and Ace?_

Fuu looked on both sides, a bit anxious, and discovered Ace on her left, on the edge of the bed, sleeping too. He was sitting on a wooden stool, but exhaustion – or his narcoleptic tendency to fall asleep anywhere anytime – had made him collapse on the blankets, his head on his left forearm, while his right hand was resting on Fuu's hand.

_Baka… If he was so tired, he should have left my bedside… _thought Fuu with a guilty smile, while trying to suppress the tingling feeling of happiness that had budded in her heart at witnessing such an attention.

She managed to sit up on the bed, ignoring the nagging pain from her shoulder, and gently bent over the sleeper.

"Ace…" called she in a soft whisper.

The aforementioned sleeper groaned a little and frowned a funny grimace that made Fuu laugh a bit.

"Ace…" called she again at his ear, with a tender smile.

This time, Ace shrugged and gradually sat up, with an expression definitely not awake, and blinked, slowly. In his field of vision, Fuu's silhouette and her face were freeing themselves from the blurry background, and he flickered several times to be sure of what he was seeing.

"Ace?" repeated Fuu with an affectionate grin, hardly controlling the envy to laugh that such a not-yet-awake face was fatally provoking.

TILT. Ace had by now opened his eyes wide.

And suddenly, he started pinching his cheek as strongly as he could, stretching it in all directions until it came back in place, completely deformed and bumped by the ill-treatment its owner had just inflected it. Then, realising that such a throbbing pain in the aforementioned cheek meant that he wasn't dreaming, he throw himself at Fuu, catching her by her shoulders.

"Fuu!" shouted Ace, "You're awake? You… I mean, it's really you, hum? I'm not dreaming, right?"

He then started to look at her from every angle, palpating her shoulders, arms and back with caution.

"Are you okay?" asked him with a worried tone, "Does your scar hurt?"

"Ace, come on, calm down…" mumbled Fuu while repressing a laugh.

_That kind of reaction looks rather like Luffy's than his big brother's, hihihi… I must have worried him a lot if Ace behaves like that…_

"Is it really you?" asked Ace, still very conspicuous, staring insider her eyes with suspicion, "Are you really awake?"

"Of course, baka!" replied Fuu with a radiant smile, "It looks rather like you're the one who is not fully awake!"

"Thanks God!" exclaimed Ace while rocking the girl on to his chest, flatly ignoring the blush that such an act had provoked on her.

_Ace? He… I… I mean…_

After a minute that seemed like an eternity, Ace finally released Fuu from his hug.

Without letting go of her, he still gazed at her for long seconds, an eerie light animating his eyes, and slowly moved his face closer to hers…

_A… Ace…_

"HEY! What do you think you're doing to Fuu-chan?" shouted a blond-haired heckler wearing a black suit, while launching a flying kick in Ace's head, sending him crash against the wall of the cabin.

_S… Sanji?_

_Wh… what the…?_

Fuu turned her head towards Sanji with an astonished expression, then towards the entrance of the cabin, from where the blond-haired man was coming.

The door had opened up to let in the Mugiwaras, and Marco who was carrying a meal tray. All were shared between an unequivocal smile and an embarrassed expression due to the scene they had NEARLY surprised, Sanji having deprived them from the rest of the show when jumping into the room at the thought that his tender damsel was being attacked.

"Fuu-chwan, is everything alright?" twirled Sanji with a worried tone, taking Fuu's hand in his with heart-shaped eyes and kneeling in a knightly pose.

"Fuu, you're wounded, they said?" asked Zoro.

"Whaaaattt? You're wounded? A doctor, a doctor!" panicked Chopper.

"That's you!" preached Usopp while hitting a chop on the big hat of the little reindeer.

"Yosh! In need of a suuper repair, komusume?" proposed Franky while opening his stomach trap to look for tools.

"Oh, the charming young lady I've heard a lot about… Could I have a look at your panties, yohohoho?" asked Brook in a reverence, upon meeting Fuu for the first time, even if they had both heard about each other by the rest of the crew.

But everyone stopped their questions to stare at the girl sitting in the bed, and more especially her outfit: the lacerated nightgown that Fuu was wearing since she had landed in WhiteBeard's Fleet was now presenting gaping holes under her chest, on her waist, and on her thighs, while the fabric had fell from her shoulders because of the bandage on her left shoulder blade, bringing the pleated cleavage of the nightgown way below its normal position.

"A.C.E…" called Zoro with a dark tone, cracking his knuckles, while Sanji's eye-shapes had switched from heart to flame, burning in direction of the Second Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet.

On their side, Franky still had his jaw unhook, and Chopper, carefree as usual, was asking Fuu to take off her clothes so that he could examine her wound, an idea that Usopp had trouble taking out of the little doctor's mind, but which seemed to interest Brook to the fullest.

"Fuu!" finally called the voice of the straw-hat wearing captain of the little comic team, "WhiteBeard-ossan told me that you used your Devil Fruit too much again!"

And Luffy stoop into the cabin with an expression shared between worried looks and sulking reprimands.

"Why didn't you ask us to come and give you a hand?" scolded he while jumping to sit down cross-legged on the bed, in front of Fuu, "If you had troubles, we would have come to help you!"

And Luffy started sulking, totally ignoring his brother who was squatting on the wooden floor in a corner of the cabin, his way of explain the previous situation with a provocative grin not to the taste of a Zoro and a Sanji peculiarly on the nerves.

"Thank you, Luffy!" smiled Fuu with a moved expression upon seeing her nakamas smiling at her and saying such a thing, even when they knew helping her would have meant facing a Buster Call.

"But of course I would always come to help you, shishishi… You're my sister-in-law after all!" added Luffy with his usual grin.

"SISTER-IN-LAW?" yelled at unison all the people present in the cabin – Fuu and Ace included – their mouth wide open of stupefaction.

"Yeah, Fuu is my sister-in-law!" repeated Luffy without losing his grin, "WhiteBeard-ossan told me so!"

The KP – kirai points, or rather density of hatred – of Zoro and Sanji skyrocketed instantly, and they fell on a still flabbergasted Ace to give him a working over, under the burst of laugh of Marco who was patiently waiting nearby with his meal tray.

"Hum… Luffy?" interrupted Fuu, definitely ill-at-ease, while glancing with concern at the free-for-all melee of punches and kicks that was occupying Ace, Zoro and Sanji in the corner of the cabin, "What… where did you take after that I was your sister-in-law?"

"What… because you're not?" innocently asked Luffy with his usual puzzled yet honest face.

"OF COURSE NOT!" shouted all together Zoro and Sanji, their eyes bulging out and their teeth showing off, before going back to their lynching of their captain's brother, their eyes darker as ever.

"Then that's strange…" muttered Luffy while scratching his chin, "When I asked WhiteBeard why he was calling Fuu his 'daughter' even if she wasn't his nakama, he told me that it was because she was his 'daughter-in-law'. And he told me it means that for me she is my 'sister-in-law', so…"

"…" could only keep quiet Fuu, both shocked and perplexed and mentally cursing WhiteBeard and his jokes, especially when making them in front of someone taking everything literally.

"Well, what do you think about it, Fuu? We're already nakamas, but if we drink together, the law of pirates says that we become siblings. So then, you will really be my 'sister' and 'in-law', so… you agree?" pursued Luffy with a big smile of anticipation.

BONG. CRASH. In two movements…

BONG. Had rung Nami's fist on Luffy's head, leaving a huge swelling bump, on it while she was raising her hand to her face in front of the legendary stupidity of their captain.

CRASH. Had collapsed the rest of the Mugiwaras, still shocked by the incoherent line of reasoning of the one who wanted to become the Pirate King.

Marco and Robin were phlegmatically sighing from the doorstep, shaking their head in redemption in front of the foolishness of Mugiwara.

Only Fuu was laughing on the sly, before finally bursting into laughter, from this light and graceful laugh that can defuse any situation. And upon hearing Fuu's laughter softly singing across the cabin, everyone raised their head and finally smiled at the good joke of their captain.

Even Zoro and Sanji finally let go of Ace, and reluctantly helped him back on his feet.

But the laugh also woke up someone.

"Hum…" mumbled the little Robin, while blinking to awaken.

Fuu stopped laughing when feeling the child moving under the sheets, and smiled to the little girl before looking at everyone.

"Ah, everyone, let me introduce you to…" began Fuu, before stopping abruptly in her sentence, stroke by uneasiness.

_Wh… Nico Robin? What was I just about to say? Robin? But Robin is…_

Fuu gave the grown-up Robin standing in front of her an utterly puzzled look, shared by the archaeologist, who then started to walk in the cabin, slowly getting closer to the bed, her eyes pinned on the ones of the black-haired little girl.

_Robin…?_

_Two Robins…? Wh…WHY ?_

_How could have I never realised something felt wrong? The name, the life story, Ohara's heritage… the same… exactly the same… Why? It's just impossible not to realise such incoherence, is it… even time seems off… Ace, Marco, everyone – me included – we all accepted the existence of TWO Robins as if it was natural? HOW?_

"Ro… Robin?" mumbled Fuu with a flabbergasted expression for the little and the grown-up girls who were now staring at each other.

As if linked by an invisible bond, the two Robins were getting closer to each other, their eyes pinned on each other, without a care for the spectators giving them speechless looks.

They raised their hand, simultaneously, like two faces of a mirror. And when their fingers touched each other, a thin membrane appeared between them, like a water film dividing two milieus with different densities.

FLASH. Under the dumbfounded expression of Fuu and the other spectators, the two Robins suddenly fused amidst a short flash of golden light.

When the light wore off, at the general surprise, the little girl had disappeared, and the grown-up Robin was silently crying, despite the faint smile on her lips, before sitting down on the edge of the bed and hugging Fuu.

"Fuu…" whispered Robin, calling her for the first time without honorific, "I… I've finally found my nakamas…"

Fuu gazed at the radiant smile of Robin amidst her tears of joy and momentarily forgot about everything else.

"Yes… the best nakamas ever…" agreed Fuu with a melancholic smile, while hugging Robin back.

"And I'm still searching for this hidden Truth…" added Robin when finally letting go of Fuu to look at her with determined eyes.

"If it's you, I trust you with it!" confessed Fuu with a confidant smile, before glancing over at the rest of the Mugiwaras, especially Luffy, "And if it's them, I am sure everything will be fine!"

"Hum, yes…" agreed Robin, wiping away her tears, before turning over her nakamas who had saved her from Enies Lobby and from the shadows tainting her heart.

She smiled radiantly to Fuu, and Fuu answered this smile with equal radiance, the bond between the two young women strengthening silently with these exchanged smiles. When suddenly:

"Robin-chan, that's no fair! I want to hug Fuu-chwan too!" twirled Sanji in love-love mode, but his arms closed down on emptiness when Ace caught him by the collar of his suit to send him packing.

"Hey, Fuu is still recovering. So if you plan to shake her or deprive her from breathing, I won't let you pass!" insisted Chopper while standing in front of Fuu, arms tighten from left to right to block any other potential enemy.

But under his plush-toy form, the threat wasn't really impressive, and Zoro couldn't help mocking him.

"Ooh? Really imposing!" teased he while lifting Chopper up as if he was a feather.

"Hey! Don't laugh at the reindeer!" retorted Chopper while briskly growing up to his humanoid form.

"Gyaa! A monster!" screamed Usopp with a frightened expression.

"Yohohoho!" laughed Brook after having asked Fuu if he could also hold her on to his chest, before adding in a hilarious laughter than he didn't have a chest anymore: Skull Joke.

"Fuu, we should go and look for some clothes for you…" offered Nami with a friendly smile for her nakama, "We just can't let you wander on this ship filled with perverts in this outfit!"

"Thank you, Nami!" answered Fuu, sincerely grateful, before her friend left the cabin with a reproachful glare for Ace.

_That's really nice to see them after so many weeks! And that's so nice of them to make the trip to come and visit me…_

_Eh? A second, how could they know that I was here? When I left, I told them I needed to go back to my brother's house on Grand Line… So how did they…?_

"Robin," called Fuu, "How did you know that I was here?"

But the archaeologist didn't have time to answer.

"I'm the one who told them to come…" calmly answered a masculine voice coming from the corridor.

Under the stunned expression of Fuu and the apprehensive glance of Ace, the owner of the voice stepped into the cabin. He pulled back his thick leather hat, revealing his short dark-brown curly hair. Large washed out jeans, a white shirt and a long cloak-like jacket were completing his traveller look.

"Hello Neechan!" said he in a faint smile, his eyes sparkling with intelligence behind his rounded-rectangle shaped glasses.

"Clow?" let escape Fuu, still shocked, "What are you…"

"I came to lecture some stupid idiot who – despite how mature and responsible she think she is – does not give a damn to the advice of her little brother when it deals with her own health…" cut Clow with a jesting expression.

"Fuu, your brother is so cool!" commented Luffy with star-shaped eyes, "His face popped out in some kind of mirror, out of this sudden… and it was floating in mid-air… and it was speaking… and he told us we had something to come and pick up on WhiteBeard's Fleet and that you were the one who got it… and… well, so we came!"

_Something I had? That they needed to pick up? What the… Could it be… Robin? The little Robin? No way… He… he knew…?_

Fuu stared suspiciously at her brother, but Clow ignored momentarily the silent reproach in his sister's eyes to pursue his conversation with Luffy.

"Hum, yeah, sorry to have made you rush here… especially since an important battle happened meanwhile, and that my idiot of a sister ended up in trouble again…" informed Clow with an accusing glare for his sister.

_Why does he seem so upset about it? He can't be worried about me, can he? I already have trouble imagining he would care that much about my health, but to the point of glaring at me?_

_I haven't even seen him for months now… No, wait a second, when was the last time I saw him? Weird… I read all his messages, but I don't… remember anything except that… And why… does it feel weird not being able to remember? Again… this strange feeling again… As if something was missing… but Clow seems to know…_

Fuu stared at her little brother who was still speaking with star-shape-eyed Luffy, Chopper and Usopp about how he used his power for communicating through mirrors.

_Well… it's true that thanks to his Devil Fruit power, he can see what is happening anywhere in the world… And since he knows about the Story of this world, it's normal that he should know that there was a paradox with the two Robins, but…_

_Wai… wait a second! There's something tremendously off with what I just said…_

TILT.

All of a sudden, as if a veil had suddenly been torn down, paradoxes started piling up in Fuu's mind, shattering all her memories of this world, of the real world… and letting her chocking with hurtful revelations and suppressed tearful convulsions.

_N… NOOOOOOOOOOO!_

_No, please, tell me I'm dreaming… The Story of this world, the Chronicles of One Piece… One Piece… story… manga… fiction? A different world!_

_My… my memories? Just… just what is… the past? The… my memories here? What about my life in this world? And… and what about Marine Ford?_

Fuu's eyes lost focus as her mind blanked on Marine Ford, desperately trying to unknot the threads of a story where she had meddled.

_Ace is… saved…_

_A different ending… a different path… but also… Robin as a child? Why is everything disrupted? It's as if the Story had split into several versions… as if it had taken an alternative path… a story… a different story…_

_Wait a minute… Could I be… into a story written by my brother…? So then… that would mean that this world is not real? None of what I've experienced is real? How can it be? _

Fuu was now taking her head into her hands to try and focus on what her memory of these past few months was trying to tell her.

_No, w… wait a second… If it's a fan-fiction written by my brother, why wasn't I conscious that I had been sent into a scenario, like the previous times I ended up in this world? Why can't I remember when I ended up in this world? Why is my mind so blurry? Why do I feel like I'm part of this world and have always lived here?_

_Tsk, I can't even determine if my memories of the months I spent here are real or fabricated by the scenario… Scenario…? Wait a second, let's admit I am inside a fan-fiction written by my brother, why would he be here, inside One Piece world? He had always said that he would never make his avatar appear in his fics… Why would he… unless it means it's… not… a fanfic…?_

Lost deep in her thoughts, Fuu unconsciously gazed from left to right, her eyes seeing without focusing on them Luffy… then the rest of the Mugiwaras… Marco… and Ace… Fuu's eyes widened: Ace who should have died at Marine Ford, but was now alive in front of her… Ace who was occupying the major part of her memories of these past months…

"H… how…?" finally hiccupped Fuu while raising her head towards her brother, her eyes welling up with tears holding on a truth she couldn't understand how she could have forgotten even if her heart was dying to forget it again, "How did you…?"

Clow crooked a sad smile, while Fuu was fighting hard to keep countenance.

"Neechan," began Clow with a tired tone full of regrets, "Could you explain the detail of my power to your nakamas?"

_His power? The power of his Devil Fruit? But… is the fact that he has a Devil Fruit power it also a fake memory fabricated by his scenario? How far can I trust my memories of this world?_

_But then again… me too… the 'me' here… Hum… well, for what it cost me to explain it… I will see afterwards…_

"Your Devil Fruit is called the Kari Kari no Mi, the power of writing. To keep it simple, it allows you to see, record, write and tell stories…" started Fuu with a calm tone, not even aware that everyone was listening to her with attention – even Luffy.

_Now, it kind of makes sense, since he is an author, back in the real world… How could I ever forget it, tsk? This damned self-satisfied preachy author-brother of mine!_

"With your power, you can open 'windows' on the world, to observe and communicate with its 'characters'. You can also use these mirrors to travel in any part of this world you know about… It's a bit like the power of an omniscient narrator…" pursued Fuu while thinking that everything was starting to make perfectly sense in her memories slowly clearing up, "Respecting to your offensive possibilities, they are quite reduced, but you can create zones under special conditions, by circling them with your calligraphies, and this area will obey the rules dictated by your writing. You can also write directly on something or someone to impact directly on them…"

At this point of the explanation, Luffy and Chopper were staring at Clow with double-star-shaped eyes.

"This way of mixing your power into your quill pen to write a scenario allows you to interact with other 'characters'." Kept on explaining Fuu with an amused look for the 'characters' in question, "Unfortunately, its success depends on the conditions under which you use your power, but also the strength of will of your target, and it fades out with time…"

_Fading… could it be that ma memories were…? By Clow…? No way!_

But her train of thoughts was interrupted when seeing Luffy and the others jumping all around the place while saying Clow's power was 'great' and 'amazing', before Luffy suddenly paused in perplexed expression by asking what writing a scenario could be useful for…

"Hum, basically, it allows someone to change the course of events and bend the Story the way they wish it, as long as they have sufficient strength for it." explained Fuu with a shared smile before stopping abruptly her speech, her lips still opened in a shocked expression.

_Changing… the course of events… Bend the Story? N… no…?_

_No, definitely impossible! He… he couldn't have… Impossible, really? At the time of Ace's execution at Marine Ford, he had confessed it himself, that he couldn't… that he didn't have the power of…_

Fuu looked at her brother with disbelief, half hoping to see an expression on his face refuting her guess. But she could only see a small apologetic smile, filled with unregretful guilt.

_He MODIFIED the Story of One Piece? He really did it… Everything that should have happened… since Marine Ford… This world really split, then? He amalgamated the original scenario of Oda-Sensei with HIS scenario to give the Story an alternative ending…_

_Ace didn't die at Marine Ford… WhiteBeard neither… because of me… because of him… and because of that, I guess temporal paradoxes started piling up, just like in science-fiction movies about time travel…_

_W… wait! So that would mean that I met with the Robin from the PAST? And that now she is back to her present body? What a headache! And how could such incoherence go unnoticed, even for the characters of this world? Robin seemed to understand something a couple of minutes ago but now, nothing…_

_And also… Why…? WHY? Even if he had the power of doing such a huge thing, why would my stupid brother so respectful of the 'piece of art' he considers One Piece to be, do such a…_

"That description is correct." finally validated Clow, cutting short to his sister's thoughts, "And respecting to the use I make of this power, it apparently runs in the family to be responsible enough not to modify the world on a whim…"

Robin's eyes soften at this precision – after having suspiciously stared at Clow for the whole of his power's description – while he was giving a resigned and apologetic smile to the wary archaeologist.

_He… he really… he really did… _thought Fuu while clenching her fingers on the bed sheets, hoping to find there a hold on reality.

"But…" continued Clow with an affectionate glance for his sister, "It also runs in the family to abuse one's power to protect the people dear to us from tears and despair…"

_As if I could let you wither of despair in the real world upon contemplating this leather bracelet and the ashes of this Vivre Card, baka… _mumbled Clow for himself, with a short glance for Fuu, _Everything was my fault, starting with your debuts in this world…_

_N… no way… _thought Fuu, mentally unable to conceive her brother could have shaken the thing he admired most for her.

"Well, then…" started Clow while readjusting his glasses, "Fuu, I hope you're finding yourself at home, in this world… Because due to my little conjuring trick, we'll be stuck here for a while!"

"Eeh?" answered Fuu in utter amazement.

_Because reconciling all the paradoxes I've created is quite a business… and that's unfortunately our only return ticket… _thought Clow with a pert smile for his sister.

"Fuu!" shouted Luffy while jumping on the bed in an extremely happy mood, "You're going to stay in the New World? Your brother and you are going to live in this part of Grand Line, now? Or you're going to stay with us? GREAT!"

_Hum, well… that's not really what 'living in THIS world' means, but…_

Fuu gazed at Luffy: such a grin could only make someone want to grin in return!

Sitting next to her, Robin was still smiling at her with complicity. Chopper, Franky and Usopp were commenting Clow's powers with impressed expressions and comical comments. Nami had just dropped on the stool near the pile of clothes she had gone to borrow to the rare female crew members on the Moby Dick, and had started rummaging it in search of a cute outfit for Fuu, glaring from times to times to Ace. Zoro and Sanji were fighting each other for no important reason, as usual, and Marco was counting the points between the cook's kicks and the blows of the swordsman. Brook had found appropriate to pull out his violin to play some Chamber Music. And Ace had finally abandoned his defensive stance to come back and sit near Fuu, quite happy to hear that her brother hadn't come to take her away.

Fuu looked at the smile Ace and the others were offering her, and finally timidly gazed at her brother Clow, before letting out a small sigh.

_Well… After all… why not…_

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	10. Story III, SPECIAL, Log Diaries

**THE DAY THE TIME OF ONE PIECE GOT BENDED, MAKING THE STORY REWRITE ITSELF**

…

The Days spent with a strange Winged Girl: Marco's and Nami's Log Diaries

…

** ~ MARCO'S LOG DIARY ~**

…

Day of Marine Ford Battle, Hour Zero

…

_It was chaos on Marine Ford battlements. I had lost sight of Ace on the scaffold… and when I had finally went back to my human form after having fought some Commandants of the Marine, no trace of Mugiwara either, despite Oyaji having asked me to watch over him! Tsk… he's definitely not Ace's little brother for nothing: hard-headed and rushing-forward!_

_And suddenly, it happened! I didn't understand what was happening, oy… Some kind of blue light had spread on the ground, and in a few seconds, had encompassed all of us into a huge flash! I thought that the Marines had used their ultimate trump card, and I had felt my insides twist at the thought… the thought that it might be the end for us…_

…

Day of Marine Ford Battle, Hour Zero +1 second

…

_But no! When the mysterious blue light vanished, our opponents were nowhere to be seen, and we were now all standing on SABAODY ARCHIPELAGO! Oy oy, I thought my eyes were playing a trick on me, but it's just impossible to confuse this set-up of huge soapy mangroves with anything else. We really were on one of them, oy, a bit distanced from the main cluster…_

_We were all staring at each other with disbelief, blinking of shock – and when I'm saying all, that was really all of us: even our ships were more or less floating in front of us or flanking on the moldy ground as if they had landed from the sky onto the mangrove and missed the sea… A damned eerie vision, oy! And as if to mock me further, my eyes had hooked onto the white eyes of the strange sunflower-shaped bow of a coated ship that I couldn't recognize…_

_What finally pulled us out of our shocked expressions was Ace! Ace who was free, oy… Ace who was safe… but Ace who was yelling of distress while holding in his arms a hazelnut-haired girl with a weird white dress spattered with blood…_

…

Day of Marine Ford Battle, Hour Zero +15 minutes

…

_Well… We managed to get some precisions, oy, even if it was kind of hard to break the surrounding mess to hear some valid explanation… Even Oyaji didn't have a clue about what had caused our escape out of the battlefield! But an okama with an extraordinary big head had claimed some silence through some devastating wink, before explaining to all the pirate crews present on the archipelago that we had been TELEPORTED out of Marine Ford thanks to the power of the girl who was still in Ace's arms – the rare doctors present, Jinbei and Mugiwara trying to take care of her._

_Oy… oy oy oy! We all took the shock in silence! Who the heck was this girl? What the heck 'teleported'? I don't know any kind of Devil Fruit that can do such a thing at such a level, oy… never minding the fact that her little trick seemed to have cost her a lot…_

_In the end, after a few seconds of dumbfounded silence, racket had resumed. Everyone was gossiping hard-core about our mysterious savior and about what had happened at Marine Ford… and before, oy! Because that was at that moment that we had learned that Mugiwara had infiltrated IMPEL DOWN and had managed to get out of it ALIVE and with a hundred of runaway prisoners…_

_So let's try and sum up, oy… Ace saved, his little brother with him after having messed up Impel Down, everyone in a safe place for now, and a mysterious powerful girl unconscious… Really, the day had brought us lots of surprises, and I couldn't help thinking there were more to come…_

…

Day of Marine Ford Battle, Hour Zero +30 minutes

…

_Everyone was still bursting of joy and relief. I had finally managed to solve some current matters, and had decided to go and have a look at our mysterious 'angel winged' savior - thank the eyewitness who'd seen her at Marine Ford for the name, oy._

_Oyaji had also knelled down near her, after having heard that she was the one who had saved Ace from his scaffold and from Sengoku, on top of having taken all of us out of this mess – oy oy, no but seriously, just who is she? But when getting closer, I could easily see she wasn't in shape of answering all the questions Oyaji and I were burning to ask her… The meds were in a puzzled panicking state, and I had never seen Ace with such a worried expression! Even Mugiwara was begging the okama – named Ivankov, no for real, THE Ivankov from the Revolutionay Army? or Iva-chan for this damned little brother of Ace not even able of calling people with respect – if he could use his hormones to heal her, Fuu – her name, and apparently one of his nakamas…_

_After having calmed Mugiwara down a bit, Ivankov had examined her with a resigned expression and said that it wasn't possible for him, and that the only thing we could do after bandaging the visible wounds was to let her rest until she recovers her energy and regain consciousness by herself – if at all possible for her to ever recover entirely, oy… I didn't mean to eavesdrop in their conversation, but it was clear that Ace and Mugiwara were quite shaken by the diagnostic…_

…

Day of Marine Ford Battle, Hour Zero +40 minutes

…

_Oyaji had at that time collected sufficient information to take the necessary decisions, and nearly all the Fleet had sailed away, in order not to offer the Marines another golden opportunity to target us… But the Moby Dick had stayed at Sabaody – with the prisoners from Impel Down and the 'New-kamas' who didn't have any ship, oy… I also stayed behind with a handful of my nakamas to guard the ship, just in case, and we focused on taking care of the injured ones. Ace had stayed behind too – despite his present tricky position – Oyaji having given up on ordering him the contrary when seeing his Commander so much preoccupied about this Fuu – definitely not a pirate from my point of view, especially since no one had managed to explain me what was the Devil Fruit that had given her the power of teleporting half-a-hundred of pirate ships – and their crew – somewhere on Grand Line… Even Mugiwara said that the last time he had seen her, she didn't have any power – oy, she's really his nakama or what? What the heck 'she had disappeared leaving no trace' some months ago? _

…

Day of Marine Ford Battle, Hour Zero +1 hour

…

_New surprise in the offing for this hectic afternoon, oy… But I had started to get used to it, and my jaw didn't unhook with the same CLONG as the ones of the others… So, after having cautiously transported our injured 'angel' into a cabin of the Moby Dick, the two brothers had finally landed back on the mangrove – thrown out by our maids as I had seen some leopard-stocking literally kick them out through the cabin balcony. Mugiwara had ranted, shouted childishly and thrown a tantrum about his nakamas, about food and other things, before finally clapping his forehead as if remembering something important. He had then pulled out from his straw hat a Vivre Card pointing towards the sunflower-looking ship, shouted 'Fuku-senchou' and threw his elastic arms towards the ship in question. A few minutes later, we saw him disembarking, laughing with a stupid grin at a grey-haired old man with a tremendous Haki – tsk, no need in displaying it to realize it, oy!_

_The aforementioned surprise: Silvers Rayleigh, the man from the legend! Happily chatting with Mugiwara about what had happened at Impel Down and Marine Ford, oy… I kind of begin to understand how this damned little brother of Ace manages to speak with Oyaji as an equal, if he associates with big fishes like that… He even managed to defuse the challenging sparks between our Emperor of the Sea and the Right Arm of the Pirate King, with his usual stupid grin and some my-pace question about his nakamas having arrived or not… Oy oy, is he for real…? Well, I must admit, that I couldn't have done it, oy… It was already a handful to withstand Rayleigh's Haki – is he picking a fight with us, or just trying to show off, damn it – so joking around with him, tsk…_

…

Day of Marine Ford Battle, Hour Zero +4 hours

…

_A few hours and a couple of serious discussions later, Rayleigh had left – Ace having ranted that he didn't care about hearing stories about his father, before running away to go and sulk on a branch of the mangrove – the Moby Dick had been better hidden than we had thought it possible, and Oyaji had given his orders to prepare our docked camp to take some rest here; Ivankov had negotiated a ship, and had already left with a bunch of Impel Down prisoners – the weirdest ones, or at least dressed the weirdest way – for their 'New-kama Land'; Mugiwara had decided to follow our advice and stay at Sabaody until at least a couple of his nakamas will be back too, since he didn't know where they had been sent and even for a hard-headed idiot like him, it's impossible to sail the Seas without at least a clue; and me, I finally found some time to casually worry about Anne's injuries – even if she had fortunately done quite well at Marine Ford, and wasn't a priority for the medical staff, let alone for letting me worry over her, oy… Well, you must admit that by being one of the rare women out there, and tall and rufous-haired, one should expect to be taken as a preferential target… Tsk!_

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +1 day

…

_I'm still amazed, oy… When I had left Ace and Mugiwara in the cabin where we had installed Fuu, yesterday at night, because they wanted to wait for her to regain consciousness – and also because we didn't have that many cabins available, so it was convenient to throw them together in this one – I was already a bit surprised, but well… However, I hadn't imagined for a second that I would find Ace still sitting on the wooden stool at her bedside today at dawn, oy! What is this aho thinking, oy oy? Humph… I can readily accept that this girl saved him and everything, but to the point of not sleeping to stay by her side? Is he kidding me? Even Mugiwara was snoring on the floor when I entered the cabin this morning to inquire after the three of them, despite Fuu being HIS nakama… On top of that, Ace is usually the type to never remember the name of a girl, so… so when I saw him trying to justify himself about duty and responsibilities – is he for real…? his lying is not as bad as his brother but it still sucks, oy…_

_Anyway, it wasn't the priority at the time: Ace needed to take some rest too. So since he wasn't listening to me when I was telling him to go and sleep while letting the nurses on-board take care of Fuu, I ended up asking him with a provocative tone if this girl was so special for him…! Holy crap, I had never imagined I would see Ace blushing of self-consciousness one day, oy! Well, seems like everyone can get it wrong, huh… But my little comment was surprisingly successful: this idiot ended up leaving the cabin and saying he was going to sleep under some phony pretext, just to avoid answering my question. I think it's going to be interesting, if just a little allusion like that makes him lose his cool, heehee… Anne gave me a smile when I came back to them all, and asked me if I found something fun again. I have the feeling she'll be right, as always, oy…_

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +2 days

…

_Jinbei was called back to his island in emergency… We all know it's going to be harsh on him, despite his previous status of Shichibukai, since he helped Mugiwara to escape from Impel Down, and also took part in Marine Ford battle on our side, oy… We offered him some help, of course, but he said he needed to take care of it alone! This damn code of honor of the fishmen, tsk… However, he promised us he will come back to give his thanks to 'the young Fuu' as soon as he would have the opportunity. Meanwhile, we'll just send him some piece of news, about the Fleet in general and about her in particular if he really wants._

_But we're not really expecting our Sleeping Beauty to wake up anytime soon: the doctors on-board are really perplexed about her… At least we only need to let her sleep, oy, not too much of a handful, because with all the other injured people we have, work is piling up for our nurses, and the Moby Dick will have to stay anchored at least another week… I don't like it, oy… But Oyaji's diversion plan is working, though, and the rare Marines still on our track have followed some other decoy from our Fleet to other places, so there shouldn't be much of a problem…_

_No correction, there IS a problem: the hordes of pirates who are crowding together at the porthole of Fuu's cabin – by curiosity or gratefulness for our 'angelic savior', I don't really know, although the guys told me she's been one of the hot gossip topics at night, with Mugiwara and Impel Down – and who end up carbonized by an 'Hiken' when they are too noisy… Ace is annoying, giving us more work at the infirmary, but somehow, my feeling is proving it right, as I find it amusing, even a bit cute as is saying Anne… After all, that's not every day that our Second Commander of the Fleet is losing his cool like that, oy… Brings a little fun in our daily routine – although Mugiwara is a stock of fun himself alone, but not the same style, heehee…_

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +7 days

…

_Well… where to start, oy…? Our plan to finally Sabaody had to be postponed due to what was happening to Fishmen Island. Oyaji is concerned about Jinbei but didn't say anything on the topic, as he respects his decision of standing alone for his homeland. But as Anne had estimated, our decoy strategy had started to run out of steam and the Marines are back on track after the disappointing outcome of Marine Ford battle, starting to search every possible place of Grand Line for us, tsk… Most of our injured nakamas are now in shape for a recovery on-board so we'll be sailing in the next few hours. But Fishmen Island is a big no-go, oy… which left us with only one option to leave Sabaody, at least in appearance… But we know what it will cost us…_

_Seriously... Mugiwara did it again… Oy oy, I think I won't ever get it used to it… Once again, he just popped out with his my-pace grin… and helped us out. Damn it, I can't help smiling too when thinking about it although I should be angry, heehee… Here we'd thought it would have cost us our crew honour to have to ask Silvers Rayleigh of all people for help, as our own coating engineers had left with the other ships and the only one left was still out of shape… but in the end, the favour was all requested on Mugiwara's side and Rayleigh only gave us a crooked smile. I know he was staring at Ace that whole time, we could feel it with Oyaji… And he accepted! Accepted with a smile, as if it was the only natural answer, oy… In the end we don't know if we have to put it to Ace's credit or to Mugiwara's… but one thing is sure, Oyaji starts feeling that things are changing…_

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +8 days

…

_Our little coated trip worked perfectly, and after having ostensibly appeared somewhere else, we're back to Sabaody – thank Anne and our strategic teams for having successfully convinced the Marines that the last place we would appear again was there. Never mind the efficiency of this trick, it would have been a living nightmare if we hadn't come back here in the next twenty-four hours, oy…, Mugiwara kept bugging us non-stop that his nakamas were coming and that we should bring him back to the meeting point quickly… Damn it, Ace had always been a brat during his first months in the crew but his brother is making honour to the family, oy…_

_Speaking of family… the news about Ace and his 'dad' have had more impact than I think it would have, tsk. Oyaji has decided to make a global official broadcast today, to our whole crew and allies, to confirm the piece of information and give a piece of his mind on it… And... no matter how many times I hear it, no matter how concerned I can be for plenty other things, I feel happy, oy… Happy to hear him call us his sons and daughters no matter where we're from… Happy to hear him adopt us as children of the sea… I know we all feel the same, and among the few new crew-mates we gained from the lot of Impel Down escapees, I know they were all moved too, oy. But Ace being Roger's son is another issue, and we know it too. It's no surprise some were shocked and some others were angry. But the surprise is that Squard of all people have been the most silent about it, I don't get it… really don't get it, oy... We heard that back at one of our allies' reunion, he's even defended Ace's status against some other crew. Anne suggests he might feel indebted or guilty about something but we don't have anything besides her intuition, tsk…_

_Anyway, Ace is not even aware of the situation, I guess… After all, he's still spending the vast majority of his time either daydreaming alone on some mangrove branch, or locked into the cabin of our still-sleeping 'angel'. Even Oyaji is starting to get concerned! Not worried about our mysterious savior still sleeping – no, that kind of thing is common after such a huge battle, oy… – but worried to see his Fleet Commander abandoning his duty to spend days and nights at her bedside! Even Mugiwara has quickly found out other occupations, despite his usual obstinate character and the fact that she is HIS nakama… But for Ace, my little allusions about his relations with our Sleeping Beauty are still making him react incredibly quickly, but not long enough to make him pull away from her, oy… I'm starting to suspect that this girl coupled to the deep wound of this War really have too strong an influence on him, tsk… Anne discussed it with one of our new meds who is a little knowledgeable in psychology, and they both say there might be a little trauma behind it that associated Fuu with a 'special' feeling in his heart. Beat me, oy… I'm not that good about this kind of things, but I can get that she's just been the mysterious ray of light in a war for him. Any idiot would get the bond it makes them share! But well, I guess that's the kind of magic spell that will break when she'll finally wake up… at least I hope, oy…_

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +10 days

…

_A new surprise has shown up, oy: the brother of our sleeping 'angel', who has come to pick her up. He arrived unexpectedly on the deck of the Moby Dick, politely bowing while introducing himself, before asking me to lead him to Oyaji. Clow was his name, and there was some resolve and some intelligence sparkling in his tired eyes, behind his glasses: the kind of honest and sincere guy that you can trust, oy… Anne and everyone felt the same... While leading him to Oyaji's cabin, we couldn't help but notice his long traveler cape charged with dust and his pale face. And as if she had spoken the impression I was feeling without being able to word it, Anne ended up asking him if he had faced the tempest of time and the world's hostility to get until here – a figure of speech not so like her, oy, but that was really the impression he was giving us… He had then raised an eyebrow and smiled faintly, before answering that we couldn't imagine how right we were! Strange… definitely strange, oy…_

_He then locked himself with Oyaji, Ace and Mugiwara for nearly one hour. I don't really know what they have talked about, but when they finally went out, Ace was making quite a long face: a mixture of guilt, frustration and sadness, a bit different from the face he had made on his execution platform, but not far from it, oy… They then walked in Fuu's cabin, and I patiently waited at the doorstep. Then, the brother had pulled a quill pen from his pocket, and started drawing symbols in mid-air with it, right above our Sleeping Beauty – the power of his Devil Fruit, I guess… The chain of black ink signs then went twirling around the head of our sleeper, and she had opened her eyes… just like that… What the...? Just like that? That had amazed us, but the following moment shocked us more: she had sit up with lifeless eyes, as if a puppet, and had turned her head towards us, but without apparently seeing us. Each time her eyes were widening and gaining some color, as if she was recognizing one of us, her lips were freezing before she could utter a single word, and she was losing herself in her thoughts. The doctors on-board were even starting to fear an amnesia, but her brother Clow had put paid to any examination. He just had mumbled that he was sorry, before pulling Fuu out of the bed to take her with him, disappearing inside a mirror that had emerged from a twirl of quill pen and closed down behind them… Oy oy, just a second, why 'sorry'? Strange, that's definite…_

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +11 days

…

_First morning since our Sleeping Beauty has left the Fleet, and despite that, the daily life on board hasn't come back to normal, oy! First, there's still Mugiwara around... and really having him around messes up every and any kind of daily routine, heehee... Second, there's been the episode of Ace slamming the door when leaving Oyaji's cabin, flushed as it shouldn't be allowed to be flushed, and muttering that it was a misunderstanding, while the guttural laugh of our Captain was ringing out through the whole ship. I didn't witness their conversation, but I have no trouble imagining its topic: our dear Pops must have asked Ace why he had been so concerned to see Fuu leave, and what this girl meant for him, oy… So then, that's with a serious spleen caused by the departure of his angel that Ace took up his duty on the Fleet again, as cool as usual, at least on the surface… Definitely a very interesting situation, heehee! Oh, however, it was way more difficult to calm down the cohorts of our nakamas who had run to Oyaji, Ace or Mugiwara this afternoon to ask them where Fuu had left, when they will see her again, if she was all right, who was she in reality, and what was her so amazing power although she had no bounty on her head… Oy oy, I must admit I'm also very curious about this last point, but it seems like our three accomplices passed around the word not to reveal anything, even if we can read in their eyes that they know… I can guess that her brother Clow has warned them or something… Wait and see, oy…_

_Something more annoying: Ace tried to thank us… for Marine Ford… And we chewed him hardcore for that, oy! Somehow, he seemed shared between remorse and happiness of having seen that we had all come for him… But all the friendly slaps in the back and the rocking hugs that everyone on the ship dedicated him – glad to see him back among us after all these days at the bedside of our savior – succeeded in making him forget his guilty regrets. He even ended up running away to go and lock himself in his cabin, a bit embarrassed by all these proves of affection, heehee… I also overheard a touching little scene between him and Mugiwara, when he was lecturing his little brother for having challenged the entire world to come and save him… Hum, I wasn't expecting our Second Commander of the Fleet to be so sentimental, even if he cares deeply about his nakamas, oy…_

_Anyway, we still ended up requisitioning him for helping us taking care of the remaining patients from Marine Ford, giving it that him, he was full of beans, oy, after having been healed – to the utter amazement of all the medical staff on-board, although they're a little slow, caring about that only now – by the mysterious power of our enigmatic girl. Oy oy, no but seriously, what kind of fruit is that, her Devil Fruit? And… obviously, this new information has spread up to fuel on new gossips all around the Fleet… speaks about the Devil always get bigger when the Devil is not around, right...? And I thought Ace looked strangely nostalgic each time he was hearing Fuu's name, oy. Well, he'll get over it… I hope…_

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +14 days

…

_Tsk, Ace's case is more serious than I had thought… Fuu came back! And I had never seen him half so happy than how he looked when he caught sight of her: he even stopped eating, oy! Well, I must admit that she had polished her entrance – must be a coincidence, though, since she's not the scheming type of person. So, Fuu arrived tonight, without prior notice, three days after having left with her brother. We were all dining on the main deck, and Anne even gave me a cute glare because I couldn't help gazing at our mysterious angel when she landed on the ship: two immaculate wings, a short ivory dress, hazelnut hair curls fluttering in the nightly breeze, and a shy smile while slowly resting her feet on the railing, not daring to directly land on the deck. I dare say that for everyone – even the ones who had seen her at Marine Ford, and whose story-telling of her performance was the one of the firewoods of chatters every evening amidst the tales of our own accomplishment during the battle – it was the coup de grace, oy…_

_Oyaji had then stood up to meet with our guest. But when he arrived in front of her, Fuu had just bowed down very politely and thanked him for having taken care of her for more than a week, also apologizing for having been a burden on us while we had other patients… Oy oy, it blew our minds: someone as much if not more foolishly polite than this stupid Ace… and who had even managed to apologize for being so late in thanking us, because she had been recovering these past few days and couldn't have taken the trip before… Apologies, from HER, the girl who had saved us all… Is she for real? Fortunately, Oyaji set things right before we could stand up to tell her we were the ones who owned her some thanks – especially since we had learned yesterday from Ace - who had drunk a bit too much and spilled the beans - that instead of teleporting only Mugiwara and him out of Marine Ford, she had decided to make all of us flee the battlefield, despite the amount of power needed… us, whose names she didn't even know, oy… Tsk, I can only agree that such a fool deserves respect, she's not this reckless Mugiwara's nakama for nothing! As such, Oyaji had put a knee to the floor, ready to kneel down in a dogeza, under the utter amazement of everyone! But her, she blushed furiously in front of such an acknowledgement, and started trying to force Oyaji to get back on his feet! Oy oy, a pretty useless and comical effort, heehee…_

_And while trying to force the conversation towards another topic and make Oyaji drop his thankful act, she had then asked why we were still at Sabaody although she was expecting to come and meet us in the New World. The diversion had succeeded, and Oyaji had stood up to discuss a bit with her – navigation, strategy and the rest… As for me, I had just went back to my tankard of rum, not much afraid about the kind of information she could pull out of Oyaji of all people, oy… But the rest of the table was still staring at our guest, and for other reasons, especially my right neighbor, Ace. Ace who had suddenly blushed while digging his hat on his eyes to conceal his embarrassment, when Oyaji had busted into laughter while looking at Fuu's right wrist – wrist about which I now know that it is adorned by a bracelet decorated with a glass pearl containing the Vivre Card of our Second Commander of the Fleet, heehee… he really made it, now… his Vivre Card of all things, oy… – And Fuu had blushed as much, if not more, when our dear Pops had invited her to spend a few days on-board, wanting to officially celebrate the victory of Marine Ford and do honour to his new daughter-in-law… 'DAUGHTER-IN-LAW'? Oy oy, everyone had crashed on the deck at such a term, before turning towards the only one who had dug his face in his plate to hide his expression - and I can tell for sure he wasn't really asleep this time, oy... On my side, I was laughing on the sly, and Anne was grinning wide too, heehee…_

_Well, discomfort hadn't last long: it would have been forgetting the usual contagious happy mood of Mugiwara, who had thrown his elastic arms towards Fuu, telescoping her on a stool nearby him to share the Kampai, ask her to show-off her wings to him and also try some other supposedly cool things... And everyone had busted into laughter upon seeing the reddish bump that Fuu's fist had left on the head of the culprit, while reminding him 'not to do that to a girl' and that 'a girl would rather die than fire laser-beams from her mouth'… Oy oy, and here I was half-fearing that she might be the cool-proud-princess-type after all that had happened… but witnessing her pouting and blushing so innocently, that's definite: Mugiwara has found really interesting nakamas, oy! And also, I think Ace is done for it: irreparably addicted… well, even if he doesn't want to admit it, especially to Vista and the lot of us, heehee... _

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +15 days

…

_As expected, the banquet and party are going on since yesterday, and I can already guess that it will last several days more, oy! It's true that because of all our injured nakamas and diversion tactics, we hadn't justly celebrated yet our escape from Marine Ford… So now that our 'angelic savior' is here, I can't picture the guys asking for more! That's rather nice to have her on-board, by the way, because our little Fuu is of the joyful and smiling type, friendly with everyone and quite helpful with the housework – seriously, we're not used to girls helping out with the chores on-board, oy, they rather kick us saying not to play it macho and do our chores ourselves… – so no wonder everyone around feels all fluffy to have a 'real' girly girl with us._

_She's also conversing a lot with Oyaji – and with calm and maturity, without feeling intimidated, which is quite an accomplishment, even if not of the same degree as Mugiwara's carefree behavior for our Pops, oy. Just after she had arrived, I overheard her spending nearly half-an-hour to reassure Ace about her health, Mugiwara mingling in from time to time. Amazing: I've never seen Ace like that – some mixture of concern yet coolness, intimacy yet distance… Impressive, almost like a brat in love for the first time but definitely not wanting to show it, oy – even Anne is often eying me with a crooked smile, to share the fun of such a show – so it's easy to bet that there isn't only 'duty' behind that, heehee… But when I speak to Ace about it, he just dodge my question and looks away, before leaving the room without glancing back. Since then, it seems like he is trying hard not to pay too much attention to our guest, especially when I'm around… but it's a big failure, oy! Even if he keeps his cool, one just have to witness the way he looks at her, or the smile he answers her when she calls his name… Who does he hope to delude, this idiot? We're not blind, Oyaji, Anne or me, oy…_

_On a more serious note, Anne and I held a little consultation about her. We know Oyaji feels too much indebted to bring the topic to him without any serious supporting evidence so we got together to discuss our options… Verdict is obvious, though... No matter how much we look into it, there's no way the Marine or anyone else would go as far as letting us the upper hand at Marine Ford to infiltrate anyone among us. Fuu just caused too much trouble that is benefiting only us, and it's crystal clear no mole-strategy could ever justify it. Besides that, it's pretty rare for the two of us – and Oyaji – together to feel we can trust someone on first impression, oy… So we'll get along with the flow for now. Nothing to fear from her in the end, except that she might disrupt our crew routine even more than Mugiwara, heehee…_

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +16 days

…

_Another partying day… And we ended up giving a private cabin to Fuu, after the – one-sided – scuffle from yesterday night. Some of our nakamas, drunk, were debating about who would have the chance of bringing back a sweet little angel to their cabin for the night – a fantasy that will stay a fantasy, I'm sure, since the angel in question can defend herself, despite her innocent smiles: all the perverts on-board can testify about the efficiency of her electric shocks… Well, a stupid and illusionary debate, especially in front of the last person on this world ready to tolerate their divagations, oy… Outcome: they won't be partying tonight because they're still at the infirmary, covered with burn marks from the Mera Mera no Mi!_

_Speaking of interesting episodes, there was also this afternoon scene, when Oyaji asked Fuu if she wanted to join the Fleet. That created a huge commotion, of course, but what was utterly amazing was to see Mugiwara picking a quarrel with our Pops, telling him that Fuu was HIS nakama and that he wasn't planning on giving her up to him! Oy oy, honestly, a rookie challenging the Emperor of the Sea, what the heck?… and when I had finally managed to slip through the uproar following this declaration, it was only to witness Mugiwara arm-wrestling with… Oyaji! For real? And apparently, the award awaiting the winner was our 'angelic savior' as a nakama… What were they thinking, seriously? Ultimately, our 'prize' ended up crossing the crowd of spectators to go and slap violently on the barrel on which was happening the arm-wrestling, stopping the duel immediately. The two opponents had raised their discomfited face towards her, and Mugiwara has reaped another bump on his head, and Oyaji a hard-core philosophic lecturing… Quite comical, oy… I must admit that her independent side is nearly the only 'pirate' thing about her…_

_I finally had a word with Oyaji about it afterwards, and we share the same view: be it her outfit, her way of speaking, the level of power of her Devil Fruit or the knowledge she has, she looks way more like a special agent from the World Government than a normal girl, oy… Mugiwara doesn't seem to care much about who his nakamas are, from what we heard, so she might be anyone… But her personality doesn't seem to match, though, and this what we don't get… And also, we still can't understand why no wanted poster has appeared about her, oy… In the end, Anne's intuition might be right again: her brother must have done something about it, but what and how?_

…

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +17 days

…

_One of Mugiwara's nakamas has just reached Sabaody: his mikan-haired navigator… and surely the girl he likes, judging on the grin that shone on his face when he caught sight of her! Oy oy, seriously… Spring has come for the two brothers from East Blue or something? Well, bygones… He decided to leave and search for his remaining nakamas, now that they're back together – and that his patience has reached its limits… Fuu had offered him to teleport them here, which sounds really good to me, but that fool told her it wouldn't be 'interesting'… Hum, I kind of understand him, but that's already been some time since he's been waiting here, and if he leaves Sabaody, Rayleigh's Vivre Card will become pretty useless for his nakamas: they can find Sabaody from anywhere but he can't find them the other way around… I explained this aspect of the problem to him, and he seemed quite puzzled, until Fuu came up with a solution: she will just ask her brother the position of their nakamas and sail there… JUST? 'Just ask her brother'? Oy oy, are you for real? No but come on, seriously, her brother and her really have a heck of impressive Devil Fruit powers… And that's coming from a Mythical Zoan, tsk…_

_So well, now that everything is solved on this side, Oyaji decided to set sail too, tomorrow, at the same time as Mugiwara, his navigator and Fuu – who leaves to give them a hand for finding the others… I don't get it much though, I thought they were their nakama but it looks like Mugiwara made it one-sided although she had just joined them temporarily… another mystery, oy – Since that decision has been made, I can detect a ray of disuse in Ace's eyes, but he always send me packing when I address the topic… Suit yourself, fool, I will just keep on watching his progress from the sidelines: that seems way too interesting to leave it be, heehee…_

…

* * *

**~ NAMI'S LOG DIARY ~**

Reunion with Luffy, D-Day +1 day

…

_Hihihi… I'm so happy to see Luffy again! I'm quite sure I grinned like an idiot when meeting him… but after all this time apart from each other, I realized how much I like him… how much I liked him more than I like our other nakamas, even if it feel cruel to say so… And well, I was really glad of being the first one to meet up with him, to see his wide and overjoyed grin when he saw me… Hum hum, well, that's not the time to be thinking about that. I managed to get down from Weatheria, but we don't know how to reach our other nakamas, even if Fuu's brother is going to communicate us their positions… Fuu, huh… I'm really glad to see her again too! I can't precisely remember when she left us, but I've got only good memories from when she was with us on the Thousand Sunny. So now that we are three of us, let's go!_

…

Reunion with Luffy, D-Day +2 days

…

_Wow, I must confess that Fuu has a very impressive power! She was regretting so much not to be able to do anything before, but now she has class, hihihi! With her Devil Fruit power – well, she hadn't really explained us what it is but I'm not going to extort information from her for something like that – she can fly, she can magnetize the Log Pose with the direction of our nakamas' position that her brother has given us, and she is often commuting with WhiteBeard's Fleet… But somehow, I can't really grasp it but her character seems to have changed a little… maybe that's the effect of Marine Ford Battle: ending up in the middle of a war must have been tough on here, I guess… and well, everyone admires her for having saved Luffy's brother, so… yep, very class, but I still prefer the clumsy Fuu from before, somehow… Hihihi… Well, at least, her usual smile and goodwill hasn't changed, so never mind!_

MARCO'S LOG DIARY

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +3 weeks

…

_For sure, every time Fuu lands here, this Fleet changes dramatically… Even if we are now back in the New World and if we have managed to drop along the way the remaining prisoners from Impel Down – with their damned Captain Buggy, that Ace seemed to know a bit but who was awfully tiresome – things are still not back to normal… Well, I must admit that when a cute girl lands on the deck of the Moby Dick in a flutter of angel wings, that makes heartbeats flutter too… but when she adds with a faint shy blush that she wanted to hear about her 'nakamas' so she that's why she came without prior notice, there she annoys me! She annoys me because I'm the one who need to put out the fires burning down the pirates of our Fleet who can't resist such a cute expression… And there's always some backlash – literally backfire – for the ones trying to get a little too close to her… Seriously, Ace! If you want to keep her to yourself, do that on the open! Not only she hasn't realized it – I must admit that is quite dense on that side, but well, everyone must have some flaw, hum – but also I have to pick up the pieces after your passing, tsk…_

_The other thing that flummoxes me, it's that Oyaji is behaving more and more differently with her: he smiles, but with some kind of doting father smile… Even if he calls us his 'Sons', he had never shown such an expression when speaking to us, so why? Hum, I could be mistaken, but he seems a bit more effusive with Fuu…_

NAMI'S LOG DIARY

Reunion with Luffy, D-Day +1 week

…

_We just met with Chopper, who was flying on the back of a huge bird to get back to Sabaody… He fell on us, on Luffy, Fuu and me, and cried that he was NOT happy of seeing us again and that he did NOT feel lonely at all when we were separated… Oh my! Still not very honest, our little reindeer… But because he was so kawai like that, we couldn't help cuddling him a whole hour, Fuu and me, and that has oddly made Luffy sulk, hihihi…_

_But on the other hand, since we still haven't find back Sanji-kun, Fuu is the one doing all the cooking for now, because I have to confess that navigating almost alone on the Five Seas, it's a nightmare… But when I saw how happy Luffy looked when Fuu was preparing the meals – and especially huge cakes – I decided to take some time off of navigation to go and wander in the kitchen too! And I even decided not to make him pay for my cooking, this time! Well, the problem being that even if I can perfectly cook salty dishes, sweets are not really… hum… Chopper ended up running away to his infirmary with a greenish face the last time I invited – rather forced him – to taste the pastry I had baked, so… So when Fuu saw my sheepish expression, she offered to teach me how to make sweets… She readily admitted that she is far away from Sanji-kun's level, but on pastries, well… she is still far far far superior to me… So I accepted her help, even if her main dishes are a bit less good than mines, I must precise, that's only for pastries, huh… And well, at least, on the contrary to Sanji-kun, she is not trying to flirt with me every time I step into the kitchen, hihihi! So well, now, when I have some free time, I try to learn how to make sweets… and Fuu is very patient, I have to confess, because we redecorated the walls of the kitchen with my preparations several times this week, already…_

_But I want to bake something that will make Luffy say 'Delicious, Oishi!" I want to see him grinning like the idiot he is when eating the cake I baked! I want… tsk, I want Fuu to stop smiling at me with such a complicity air, as if she perfectly knew what I'm thinking, it's embarrassing…_

MARCO'S LOG DIARY

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +4 weeks

…

_Okay, now, I will be obliged to admit that Oyaji really is loony! Since when does he pat Fuu's head to welcome her, as if she was a cute little kid and him a doting father? And his little joke about a 'daughter-in-law' is taking some crazy proportions… How can a Yonkou just lose his usual charisma to tease people about something as trivial as their love stories? Never seen that, tsk… and everyone on the Fleet is dumfounded too… The fortunate – or rather weirdest – part about this change of behavior is that it only happens in front of Fuu… What the heck did that girl do to our Captain and Second Commander to hypnotize them like that, and unconsciously on top of that?_

_Well, I'm groaning and mumbling, but I like to see her too, this girl… Tsk… To be honest, who doesn't like her here? First, she is a GIRL, and rather cute on top of that, so I can't picture our little crew of buccaneers deprived of extensive feminine company to ask for more than that, already… But there's more: two, she usually spent her time here helping us out for daily duties and housework on-board, and that, that's just pure happiness! Three, she is never arrogant, despite everyone knowing how powerful her Devil Fruit can be and how smart she is, and that is something I can't understand… you've got to be from another dimension to be like that, seriously, it's as if she didn't know her place – or the place she could claim – in this world, heehee… So well, for four, she is smiling a true smile to everyone – which is usually not the kind of thing you expect from a pirate, except maybe from Ace's dumb little brother – and she has always interesting stories to tell us about – Mugiwara's stories, always interesting and comical of course – during our evenings on the deck… So in the end, every time she is landing here, we're partying for several days… And everyone is rather touched to hear her calling us 'her nakamas' even if she is living at another place of Grand Line with her brother or travelling the major part of her time with the Mugiwaras…_

_But what I enjoy the most every time she is coming to visit us, it's to observe the change of behavior of our Second Commander of the Fleet: he can try and say anything he wants, this girl is obviously special to him, heehee…_

NAMI'S LOG DIARY

Reunion with Luffy, D-Day +2 weeks

…

_Our crew is reforming itself, little by little… We just got Usopp back on a tropical island, but it's rather hard to guess on what he spent his time on it, because it's difficult to make the difference between his true stories and his usual lies… I'm rather happy to reunite with everyone, even if I was enjoying to be with Luffy, just the two of us – well, Chopper does not count for this kind of thing, even if Luffy prefers to hug him than me when he is cold, tsk… and well, Fuu had left us for a few days, so… But it's just that I feel like we only retrieved the more scatter-brained part of the crew, sigh… So when Fuu finally came back from her visit at WhiteBeard's, she was rather surprise to see me welcoming her as my savior: at least a sensible person to join us, hihihi!_

_And then, we found Zoro, several days later. That's definite, the information communicated by Fuu's brother are really reliable! And the fact that Fuu can get her bearings on the Five Seas without Log Pose is even more impressive… I'm rather jealous, but it's hard to resent a friend, especially when she is trying very hard not to show off her power… Well, to be honest, I started to deeply love her power during a battle some days ago: I can't even say how glad we were, Usopp, Chopper and me, when we saw her spreading a light shield around us! Such a useful power! On the other hand, she still seems to dislike fighting very much, she didn't even use a single attack, even if she said she can do it with her Devil Fruit too… Well, it wasn't really necessary since the guys took care of our enemies, and since she is very good in supporting us with what she calls her 'spells'…_

_So well, now that Zoro is back, we're starting to retrieve our little habits, even if it's not really that yet! I can't wait to reunite with the rest of the crew, especially the most mature part of it, because for now, our daily routine sometimes resembles a family comedy… Now and then, I've got the illusion that Fuu is a housewife lecturing some agitated kids during dinner, it's so funny! And she's really compassionate with me for having sailed with them all this time and not having gone crazy… Now that I think about it, in this little family show, I guess Zoro would be… the daddy, huh? Hihihi, oh my, definitely not cut for the role… The sooner Sanji-kun comes back the better: the equilibrium of roles on the ship starts to be seriously shaken…_

MARCO'S LOG DIARY

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +5 weeks

…

_I surrender, tsk… I think I will just stop and try to understand where the new facet of our Captain's personality is coming from… Tsk, he just transformed into a good-natured doting father with an expansive affection – but only with her… Well, it's kind of funny to see that from the sidelines, especially the blushes of Fuu and Ace each time he's teasing them on their being an item… but somehow, someone has got to explain me how three of the most wanted people by the Marine since a couple of weeks – and usually three of the most serious people I know – can behave like that?_

_Anne advised me to just let go of it, and I think I will do so… but just for Oyaji, because for Ace, I enjoy too much provoking him on the topic to abandon this wonderful opportunity! Seeing him lose his cool for a girl, that's way too exceptional to overlook it, heehee…_

NAMI'S LOG DIARY

Reunion with Luffy, D-Day +3 weeks

…

_Well, here comes what should relieve the mood on-board: yesterday, we met with Sanji-kun, because 'Iva-chan' – who the hell is this 'Iva-chan', Luffy? Not but, what the hell, he managed to meet a woman at Impel Down? Who? How? What the… – hum hum, bygones… that Iva-chan had forwarded Sanji-kun to us upon finding him at her place… And Sanji-kun had never looked as happy as when he caught sight of me… I didn't dare to ask him where Bartholomew Kuma had sent him, but it looks like it was hellish for him! And since then, he is even more caring and full of consideration for me – and for Fuu who came back a day after him… Odd! Definitely odd! _

_So well, at least the daily routine on-board has retrieved an almost normal pattern, even if everyone has trouble to resume their activities from before Sabaody… As a perfect example, there had been Fuu beginning to cook, under the shocked expression of Sanji-kun, before she suddenly realized that the cook had come back and that it wasn't her job to prepare the meal anymore. So she ended up apologizing to Sanji-kun with a flustered face… and Sanji-kun ended up discovering that she had taken care of the meals during his absence: huge shock for our flirtatious gentleman, who started apologizing a million times to have been away from us and having let such a burden on a damsel shoulders… So funny – well, except for Fuu, who didn't know what to do anymore, trying to reassure our cook that it had been nothing etc… Fortunately, the little scene ended up as 'usual' when Usopp mentioned that it had been Fuu and Zoro on kitchen duty during his absence, our swordsman having taken the habit of washing the dishes to help our winged nakama. At first, I have to confess that it had surprised me too, to see Zoro postponing his nap for helping her, but I guess that was his man honor not to let our guest do all the work by herself… So well, upon hearing that, I think Sanji-kun imagined the scene with pinky glasses, and he started picking a fight with Zoro: another I-don't-remember-how-much__th__ fight between the two rivals, I think they missed it…_

_Oh, and… I finally asked Fuu who was Iva-chan, since she had met her at Marine Ford… and her little crooked smile reminded me of Robin's smile when she had guessed much more than what I had hoped to reveal… Tsk… And Fuu explained me that HE was the Okama Queen, and an ally of Dragon, and that I had no reason to consider him a potential rival… Hum, am I beginning to be so easy to read through?_

MARCO'S LOG DIARY

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +7 weeks

…

_Recently, I realized how much this girl was part of our crew, somehow… How did I realize that? Simple: she didn't come to visit us last week! And indeed, something was missing… everyone felt it… at the mood, at the quantity of laundry piling up, at the number of look staring at the sky… Of course, we'd rather die than admit that we miss a mere simple normal girl, but… more honestly, we were overjoyed to see her coming again yesterday evening… Oyaji even lectured her a bit for having let us down the previous week, and Ace inquired immediately if she had been caught into troubles… But in the end, it was just because of the distance: well, we'd already progressed a lot in the New World, her brother is living on the other side of Red Line, and the Mugiwaras are currently very far away too… To be honest, I'm already impressed that she manages to travel that far with her wings… Me, even under my complete phoenix form, I would need several days to cross such a distance! I spoke with Ace about it, and it seemed to worry him a lot – why, I don't know, but it must have some link with the nature of Fuu's Devil Fruit…_

_But well, her visit has made us retrieve our little partying habits, and that's good!_

NAMI'S LOG DIARY

Reunion with Luffy, D-Day +5 weeks

…

_Here comes Franky! He really ended up at the other end of this world, seriously! By chance we had his direction thanks to Fuu's brother… If not, I can't really picture how we would have retrieved him… Oh, and I finally asked Fuu some precisions about her power – the way she can position herself and magnetize our Log Pose to give us the right direction – and it seems that her Devil Fruit allows her to identify the different wavelengths of all the magnetic fields, as well as all the perturbation in these waves – such as a boat or an archipelago – and she uses that to localize the Thousand Sunny, every time she is flying back to us… Amazing! Even without being Luffy or Chopper, you have to agree, it's just amazing, I'm really jealous! But well, at least I'm not the bitter type of jealous person against my friends… No no, really: after all, that's only some global positioning power, definitely not navigating skills… and well, Fuu is really bad at meteorology forecasts, so no bitter feelings!_

_Except that, she is also giving us some news from WhiteBeard's Fleet, every time she is back from commuting with it, and that gives us some fantastic stories about the New World, in which direction we are now sailing to, since our two last nakamas are apparently there… Now that I think about it, that might sound a bit odd, coming from the so-clueless Fuu, but I detect a lot of affection when she describes her visits at the Yonkou's Fleet, and more especially every time she speaks about Luffy's brother: Ace… But I must be imagining it… I mean, even if their tempers are quite alike, I perfectly remember that Ace has the reputation of an elusive seducer on Grand Line… so I can't picture a guy like him falling for someone, and especially for a girl as pure and honest as Fuu… Hum, and also… he'd better not try and play around with her or I knock him out!_

MARCO'S LOG DIARY

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +2 months

…

_I feel like I will end up journalist at the agony column of our Fleet… not that there are more interesting things to tell about, recently, but… But I still can't understand how two grown-up ADULTS aren't able to cross the bridge? And this damned stupid Ace who can't do this damned first move! How comes he's becoming shy now? What a hopeless idiot… Tsk, Anne told me not to put my nose into it, but sometimes it really tickles me when I see Ace and Fuu ignoring the rest of the world to speak to each other with the intimate aura of people who had known each other for ever, while they are not even able to admit they like each other! Oh yeah, so discreet that everyone else manage to tell me I'm imagining things, and that teasing them on the topic if just some groundless funny joke, but that's just they're too blind to see the obvious! Oyaji has noticed it, as well as I did, even if the main protagonists did NOT: the main reason behind the frequent visits of Fuu here, it's our Second Commander of the Fleet! She hasn't realized it – and Ace even less – but even if she always smiles whole-heartedly to everyone, when she speaks to him, there's a different light in her eyes, a different glow on her face… and then again, for her arrivals, that's nearly always in front of him that she lands in a flutter of wings, how coincidental! Tsk, why are these two fools so dense? Well, that just means they're made for each other, I guess… And since it seems their progress are going to be slow – comically and entertainingly slow – I guess I will just resign myself to the fate of watching over it and laugh at it on the sly from the sidelines, heehee…_

NAMI'S LOG DIARY

Reunion with Luffy, D-Day +8 weeks

…

_Here we are! The New World! Rayleigh-san really did a great job with the coating: we crossed the Island of the Fishmen without any trouble… or rather without any SHIP trouble, since we stopped on the way to help Jinbei to sort out his troubles… But well, we owned him a big favor for having helped our foolish Captain at Impel Down and Marine Ford! So well, now that we've crossed Red Line, we can feel that the atmosphere here is really different: the kind of air fitting the territory where are fighting all the big fishes of the pirate world! And because of that, Luffy and the others are even more excited than ever… such a bunch of kids, really…_

_We left in search of Brook and Robin without Fuu, because she stayed on the other side of Red Line to run back to her brother's place: an emergency, it seems… So when she will be coming back, I hope everything will be fine for her, I mean when flying over Red Line… hum, after all the horrors we have heard about Marie Joie and everything we've seen here about the Tenryubito and them… Oh my… But well, Luffy trusts her so let's do the same and stop worrying… On top of that, we've got a lot to do! We already faced a tremendous storm on entering this new sea, exactly the same as the tempest we had faced upon entering Grand Line, long time ago… As I read on Weatheria, navigating on the waters of the New World is not going to be easy, but we'll do our best! Everyone is shivering with excitement: One Piece is at the other end of this Ocean, and our dreams too!_

MARCO'S LOG DIARY

Marine Ford Battle, D-Day +10 weeks

…

_Here comes our winged princess… And I say 'princess' because of the princess hold position I saw her in, while climbing down the ropes from the lookout in Ace's arms, heehee… Hum, but more seriously, there seems to be something wrong: she asked for a formal audience with Oyaji, and if I saw right, she was holding a little black-haired girl in her arms… What the hell is happening?_


	11. Story III, SPECIAL, Log Diaries II

**THE DAY THE TIME OF ONE PIECE GOT BENDED, MAKING THE STORY REWRITE ITSELF**

…

The Day the Mugiwaras visited WhiteBeard's Fleet: Marco's Log Diary

…

**MARCO'S LOG DIARY**

Buster Call Day, Hour Zero

…

_It was chaos on the main deck of the Moby Dick! Ace had just dived into Grand Line to save Fuu – that Kizaru had thrown over the railing into the sea – and that stupid Ace had let their lives in my hands – literally – upon passing me the only rope linking these two sinking Devil Fruit eaters to the ship… What the…? I would have loved to chew him hard-core for that, but he will realize by himself the big mess his little decision has put us into… because when I had finally managed to haul up Fuu and him out of the sea – amidst the chaos and duels between the Admirals and our Commanders – the battle had turned against us, and we were all quite bashed up…_

_But how could I still resent him when I saw him shouting the name of the unconscious girl he was holding in his arms, trying and make her breathe again? I even didn't feel like smiling when I saw him putting his lips on hers to reanimate her…_

…

Buster Call Day, Hour Zero +1 hour

…

_Sigh, I thought I would have gotten used to it, somehow… But honestly, how can someone get used to see a fragile girl releasing an energy powerful enough to TELEPORT – once more a teleportation, she really is against violence, this girl, or something, tsk… – an entire Buster Call out of our field of vision! And we just received confirmation of it: indeed, all the Marine battleships with the Admirals and them are really back to Marine Ford, and quite pissed off about it, heehee…_

_But come on, we really need to ask our 'angelic savior' to stop saving us, precisely… or we're going to end up all rusty! And by the way, also asking her to stop putting her life in danger to do so… Oyaji didn't want to confirm it when I hinted it, but anyone a little smart can see that using her Devil Fruit exhausts her a lot… So after having frightened us a bunch after the battle – no but come on, what was that about the tragically moving little scene when she was just falling asleep? – hum, well, she is taking another nap, kind of… We installed her in her cabin with the little Robin – who is so worried she does not even want to leave the room, tsk – and Ace who is staying at her bedside, as always…_

_Well, we don't even bother getting surprised at it, by now, especially after their little show on the deck of the Moby Dick to divert the attention of the Admirals… but well, I don't dare teasing him about it for now, considering the current state of the second protagonist…_

_However, as we still don't know how long is going to sleep our Sleeping Beauty, we go and drag Ace out of her cabin from time to time, so that he can do his job of Second Commander of the Fleet, a little!_

…

Buster Call, D-Day +2 days

…

_Oh my… New surprise and huge disruption in our Fleet: Mugiwara has disembarked! Correction: he landed us with his sunflower-looking ship and his nakamas, whom he managed to all reunite… Apparently, Fuu's brother, Clow, had told them that her sister had something they needed to come and pick up, so they sailed directly towards us upon entering the New World, following the direction of the Vivre Card Ace had given his little brother, and they ended up here after quite a few days – how good are their navigating skills to be able to do THAT…?_

_But still, if I remember the stories our Sleeping Beauty had told us at our evening gatherings on the deck, a few weeks ago, I don't recollect them to be so many, in Mugiwara's crew… And come on, what's with this odd bunch? A little reindeer who speaks and is supposedly a doctor… a cyborg walking around with only his underwear on, but who would have worked under the shipwright who built Gold Roger's boat… an archaeologist who keeps silent but seems to know about everything behind her enigmatic smile… a… SQUELETON… who moves, speaks, and plays music?_

_Even Ace looked surprise upon meeting them – when he had finally deigned to leave Fuu's cabin to come and meet with his little brother and his crew… and someone must explain me why he looked so annoyed to see them and to hear why they were here… I mean, he had told me himself that his brother had found himself great nakamas when he had met with him in Alabasta… and also, if I remember correctly, Fuu is Mugiwara's nakama to start with, so… Oh! Oh, I see… So that's what is eating him, hum… Well, he will still have some time to think about it, since our Sleeping Beauty does not look eager to wake up!_

…

Buster Call, D-Day +3 days

…

_I'd always found Mugiwara… hum, let's say SPECIAL… and well, it had taken us some time to get used to his usual behavior – if at all possible to get used to it… But his nakamas, that's also something else! And all the stories told by Fuu can't give a true liking of what we are now experimenting for real!_

_I think the whole crew resumed the ballet of unhooked jaws that we had had just after Marine Ford, because of the surprises and shocks succeeding each other at a frantic rhythm… But this time, the difference is that these surprises are embodied by 8 – no, 9 with Mugiwara – pirates who landed on the Moby Dick to pay a visit to their nakama… And well… amidst the story-telling of Mugiwaras adventures about which we were missing some details – what the heck, he ordered to burn down the flag of the World Government? Are you kidding me when saying this damned little brother of Ace punched a Tenryubito? – hum hum… well, we are not going to get bored!_

…

Buster Call, D-Day +4 days

…

_I confirm my impression from yesterday: all the warnings on this earth couldn't have prepared us or spared us some dumbfounded expressions upon seeing the Mugiwaras behaving like… well, like Mugiwaras!_

_Even if Fuu had told us with some humor how Roronoa could get lost on a straight line, seeing him in real life turning LEFT when we had just told him 'AHEAD' for reaching the main deck is really priceless!_

_Even if Mugiwara had already told us, after Marine Ford, that he had the best navigator in the world, we couldn't have imagined that she could FORECAST the weather on the UNPREDICTABLE seas of Grand Line… never minding the fact that on top of being really cute, she can send everyone in the crew – except Oyaji – rolling under the table at a drinking contest…_

_Even if Ace had told us that there was one of them enjoying tall stories, how could we have pictured him spending a whole night story-telling a bunch of lies mixed with some real adventures…? And can someone explain me why the name on his wanted poster is 'Sogeking' when he seems to speak about this guy as if it was someone else?_

_Then, there's their cook – on whom I nearly landed a punch when he tried to kiss Anne's hand with heart-shaped eyes – who helps Marjane in the kitchens with a dead serious expression, in order to prepare enough food for this black-hole-stomached Mugiwara, but spends the rest of his time provoking and answering Roronoa's provocations… How can these two be at daggers drawn with each other at one moment, like eternal rivals, but a second after that take care of their childish nakamas as if they were brothers?_

_Likewise, even if Fuu had told us that Chopper – the reindeer – was a cute little coward always saying the contrary of what he felt, seeing him throwing himself behind Roronoa's legs when one of our nakamas stare at him, although he has the guts to go and lecture Oyaji about his health, it's just too much, heehee…_

_Oh, and then, there's the noisy blue-haired shipwright: a cyborg whose fuel is c… – cola? What the heck? – and who takes care of the others like a clumsy big brother… Ace had never met this one, since he joined Mugiwara at Enies Lobby – no, but seriously, they really destroyed the Judicial Island? – and was also shocked to suddenly see him dancing some disco choreography on the table at dinner, this evening on the main deck …_

_Speaking of our evening gatherings, there also this Brook, who is… well… dead, but not really, so they said… but he's an exceptional musician! Even if he nearly ended up as a carbonized pile of bone dust when he unfortunately started singing too loudly near Fuu's cabin… I kind of guess that, if he is still alive – my bad, if he is still MOVING – it's certainly because Ace had taken it up on him not to demolish one of his little brother's nakama… _

_And finally, let's not forget the quiet Robin – this name is definitely bugging me but I can't pinpoint what is off, tsk… – who can nearly disappear into her reading… no one noticing her, but her noticing everything… and who watches over her nakamas with a faint smile, as if she perfectly understood that what makes them so 'odd' is exactly what also makes them 'precious'!_

_Ace was right: a mixture of irreverence with an absolute trust in their captain, plus a hint of folly amidst big dreams… his little brother really found himself the best nakamas in the world, heehee…_

…

Buster Call, D-Day +5 days

…

_Seems like our Sleeping Beauty has woken up… I heard her voice this morning, through the door of her cabin, just when I was going to knock to ask some news to Ace – who spent his night at her bedside, once again… Tsk, spending all your time nearby her is not going to help her to get better, you know… I said the same thing to the kid who didn't leave the cabin for the whole week, but lost cause for our two worrywarts…_

_So well, I guess I will go and pick up some breakfast for our winged princess, and also for the little girl – for Ace, he will have to move his butt: that's too big a quantity to transport it – if admitting that the fact that Fuu is now awaken has made him regain his appetite…_

_Oh, and I also need to tell the Mugiwaras that Fuu is awake, before they run to the cabin on their own, heehee…_


	12. Omake, Cram School

_What happens to a girl who learns that she is supposed to live from now on in a fictional world she had never been a huge fan of?_

**

* * *

Original Writing Date: **April 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes: **Comedy, Parody  
**Pairings: **None  
**Number of Chapters: **1 **/ Words: **2300  
**Rating: **K  
**Warnings: **Spoilers Marine Ford Arc  
**Credits:** All characters beside the two OC (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders in the world.  
**Guest Star:** Clow, alias Clowsama (.net/u/1552380/Clowsama)

* * *

**THE DAY AN OC GOT SOME UPDATE ON HER SITUATION**

**...**

**MODY DICK, FUU'S CABIN**

Everyone had left Fuu's cabin upon Robin and Marco's advice, to let her speak with her brother in peace, and Fuu was trying hard to make her mind integrate all the information that Clow had told her since his arrival…

Both her heart and her mind still couldn't accept the fact that her brother and her were responsible of a spatiotemporal split of One Piece Universe, and that this little conjuring trick was locking them in this fictional world for apparently quite a certain time…

But since she couldn't make her heart agree on which feeling was now paralyzing her mind – amidst incredulity, guilt, relief and worry – she settled for some light-hearted conversation with her brother, trying to focus only on their usual fights other trivial yet pragmatic details…

Fuu: *sighing, looking at her brother* So, until when are we stuck here?

Clow: *world-weary* Until I manage to fix up all the paradoxes I created…

Fuu: Hum… and how can I help you?

Clow: *deep sigh* By starting to stop and cause more me more trouble and more work when stealing the spotlight from the heroes and teleporting their enemies back to square one… People like us shouldn't be showing off on Grand Line, you remember?

Fuu: *vexed* I agree with you on that point, I had already told you so, back home… *starts sulking* But if you wanted me to behave accordingly to my 'position' and 'status' of undesired guest into this story, why did you erase my memory upon our arrival here? If you want me to take my responsibilities, at least let me remember I have some, tsk…

Clow: *smile sad and protective for his sister* Would you have wanted to remember what reality should have been?

Fuu: *refusing to listen to her heart thumbing in her chest at such a thought* … S… sorry

Clow: *pondering mentally if his decision had been the less worse one* Sigh, no, it's me… My bad…

Fuu: *forcing herself to think about something else* Oh, by the way… I still haven't slaughtered you for having sent me back in this world without my consent!

Clow: *stepping back with a hiccup* Gulp… But that was at Marine Ford, several months ago… You're not spiteful and rancorous to that point, are you? Especially since you admitted yourself that you liked this world and its characters, now…

Fuu: *deep blush* You spied into my mind to learn that? I'm definitely going to slaughter you!

Clow: *dodging the electric stared of his sister* But it's true, isn't it?

Fuu: *resigning herself and looking away* Tsk… Even if I like people here… you still sent me into a SHOUNEN manga I know nothing about! So staying here…

Clow: *thinking* _So not honest, tsk… She's already been living in this world for several months, and enjoying it quite a lot, heehee… _*loudly* A world you know nothing about, hum… Until what point did you read?

Fuu: Pardon?

Clow: The night before our departure… you were reading One Piece chapters, right? So until when do you know what happened in this world?

Fuu: *thinking* _He definitely spied on me! How embarrassing! Grr, this damned stupid brother… Tsk, are all authors that intrusive?_ *sighing deeply before pursuing loudly* I read until Alabasta… then, in this world, your 'Chronicles of One Piece'…

Clow: *mentally calculating* Skypiea, Enies Lobby…

Fuu: At the evening gatherings on the Moby Dick, the prisoners Luffy had freed told us about Impel Down, because Luffy did not feel like it…

Clow: *conniving grin* Let me guess, he said something like 'Too long to tell you about', right?

Fuu: *nodding* Precisely… How atypical for a pirate, hihihi… But I still managed to learn about the details. Then, when sailing with Nami, she told me what had happened before, at Sabaody Archipelago… And after that, respecting to Marine Ford, well, I WAS there, because of a certain someone…

Clow: *ignoring the remark* Well then, you're not missing a lot… especially since the story has changed upon our arrival… and since time is not flying at the same pace here and at home, even the weekly new chapters of the original scenario are not of actuality for us…

Fuu: *deep in thought* … weekly chapters… months spent in Grand Line… story changed… alternative universe… Oh my, I really really hate spatiotemporal manipulation and its related paradoxes: that's just a huge headache!

Clow: *amused smile* Well… And how about your Devil Fruit? Are you fine with the details?

Fuu: *deep sigh and starts sulking* I read the whole notebook you left me, 'TEACHER'… And by the way, does it mean I can't swim, in this world? Even if I gained my memories back?

Clow: No, you can't swim anymore… That's about your body, not about your memories… Oh, but maybe in swimming pools… After all, Devil Fruit eaters are weak against the sea, not water in general…

Fuu: *hesitant* Hum… And respecting to that… There's no antidote, is there?

Clow: *raising an eyebrow* Antidote?

Fuu: Against Devil Fruits…

Clow: *dumbfounded* You want to abandon your power? WHY? Are you that afraid of dying?

Fuu: *surprised* Huh…? No, that's not that… although yes, it would be a problem too, but… *sulking* That's more about what you said about responsibilities and showing off… My Devil Fruit shouldn't even exist, after all…

Clow: *trying not to laugh* You can't imagine how true it is, tsk… but I couldn't take your Hoshi Hoshi no Mi back from you after Marine Ford, so… Try and do your best! Even if I'm not really expecting wonders from such a clueless SHOUJO-fan like you…

Fuu: *vein showing up on her forehead* Oh really? But then again, your Kari Kari no Mi is especially powerful too…

Clow: *provocative grin* But me, I'm responsible!

Fuu: *more and more vexed* Oh? Responsible? Then, how about preventing your heroes to massacre poor Marine soldiers on their passing…

Clow: Ah, no, that, that' another story… and I'm not sure TELEPORTING them is better!

Fuu: *crossing her arms* At least, it's not a murder…

Clow: You're inside a SHOUNEN, that's normal to annihilate one's enemies…

Fuu: I'm a fan of SHOUJO, and rather pacifist on top of that!

Clow: So what? Are you planning on following the heroes and healing their enemies after the battles?

Fuu: *shadowy smile* Not too bad a plan…

Clow: *shocked* NO KIDDING! *calm down, heave a deep sigh* What about caring about your own health first, hum? Baka!

Fuu: *lowering her eyes with a guilty smile* Sorry… I'll do my best…

Clow: * eyeing his sister* Do your best, hum… *force a smile back on his lips* And how do you plan on doing your best in a SHOUNEN you said you knew nothing about, please tell me, it must be very amusing!

Fuu: *vexed* Don't take me so lightly! I'm used to travelling… so some months on Grand Line and I had already gotten adapted quite well to this world! Even if I didn't have my memory from back home, I wasn't thinking the things around me were weird anymore, before you barged in this cabin!

Clow: *teasing grin* Oh, really? So you had already gotten used to this same universe you were hardly criticizing back home?

Fuu: *deep blush of shame* O… of course!

Clow: *amused* Oh then, how about a quiz… What are the most favorite things of Luffy?

Fuu: *pretending to bump on a big pushing-button in front of her* Adventure, his straw hat, and meat!

Clow: *surprised* Wow… Good answer, I'm impressed… What about Nami's favorite thing?

Fuu: *another fake buzz on the imaginary quiz button* Luffy!

Clow: *flabbergasted* Ah, hum, that's not confirmed, that… That's what I'm wishing for in my fan-fictions but… *suddenly realizing something* Oh, but… I could do some research while I'm stuck here… But YES! Of course! I can go and spy in the heart of Oda-Sensei's characters, since we're here with them, heehee heehee… ask them what they think of each other… dig a little further than what the original scenario is revealing… Muahahahaha !

Fuu: *drop of annoyed perplexity on her temple* Oups, oup oup oup oups… Hum, so well… what was the answer to your quiz?

Clow: *snapping out of it* Oh, that's right! It was 'money'!

Fuu: *clapping her forehead* Oh yep, that's true!

Clow: *back to his quiz* So, next question: how are pirates classified along Grand Line?

Fuu: Classified? Hum, you mean, like Rookies, Supernovaes, Shichibukai, Yonkou and finally Pirate King? That's not very hierarchical, is it? Just some title as we usually find in mangas to help the reader remembering their names, right?

Clow: *raising an eyebrow* Exactly… and since you're worse than the most clueless of One Piece readers, it should be useful for you too… So, their names within each category?

Fuu: Their names… of all of them? Hum, Gold Roger was the Pirate King…

Clow: *dubious* You're not expecting that such an easy answer will get you a pass, aren't you?

Fuu: *starting sulking* WhiteBeard and Shanks are Yonkou… and hum… the two others, I don't know, I confess…

Clow: Yeah, you're kind of excused… Kaidou and Big Mama have never appeared yet in the manga, so… Then give me the names of the Shichibukai, that's easier.

Fuu: Well, let's see… Jinbei, who resigned to help out Ace and WhiteBeard… Mihawk, the ultimate swordsman that trained Zoro these past months… and then Hancock, who helped Luffy to infiltrate Impel Down…

Clow: … and fell in love with him…

Fuu: *mouth wide open of shock* PARDON?

Clow: You didn't know?

Fuu: Well, no, of course not, I haven't read until that, you remember… In love with Luffy? The Empress of Pirates? Wow, I guess Nami has a rival there…

Clow: *laughing on the sly* Well, not only her… even some Amazons liked Luffy a lot… But I don't think it's going to go further than that, since Luffy didn't even realize…

Fuu: *feint laugh* Why is it not surprising, hihihi…

Clow: *back to his quiz with a more serious look* Then, what about the rest of the Shichibukai?

Fuu: *looking away while rummaging her memory* Ugh… And also, hum, Kuma who sent the Mugiwaras on different islands… hum, let's see: one, two, four… that's three missing… Ah, there's also… this… this bastard of BlackBeard, grr…

Clow: *shocked to hear his sister cursing someone*

Fuu: *frosty look and dark aura* Grr, if I meet with him someday, I'll…

Clow: *estimating it's safer to stop his sister* Yeah, well, sure… Later, then… And you didn't say you were pacifist, some minutes ago? So, what about the other Shichibukai?

Fuu: *eyes back to normal, and her mind back to searching the names* Hum, let's see, the guy in pinky-feathered coat who manipulate people…

Clow: *anxiety drop on his temple* Doflamingo…

Fuu: *vague smile* Probably… Well then, hum… I… I don't remember, ah, no, there's also Crocodile!

Clow: He was fired!

Fuu: Damn it, that's right… Ah… hum…

Clow: *sigh* The last one, it's Moria: the controller of shadows and zombies from Thriller Bark.

Fuu: Oh, I see… *seeing his brother reading to pursue the quiz* Oh but I stop you right now, I don't know the names of the eleven Supernovaes! I only vaguely know about Kidd, Law and the girl with pink hair, on top of Luffy and Zoro…

Clow: *choking a burst of laughter* That's worth being honest, hahaha… Then, what do you know about the Marines?

Fuu: *sighing while thinking this quiz was endless* Sengoku is the Fleet Admiral, Luffy's and Ace's Grandfather, Garp, is Vice-Amiral but there are more than him with the same rank… after that, there's the three Logia Admirals… hum… Kizaru, Aokiji and… grr… A.k.a.i.n.u… grr… and all the usual units with their Commandants, Lieutenants, etc…

Clow: *nodding* That's correct… what about the Government?

Fuu: *sparkle of zeal switching on in her eyes* The World Government is directed by the Gorousei, the Five Elder Stars, in parallel with the Royal Dynasties…

Clow: *nodding while crossing his arms*

Fuu: *pursuing her little explanation* After, you have the Assembly of the Nobles from the Five Seas, at which is present Vivi's father for instance… and who are under the rule of the Tenryubito from Marie Joie who are the Royal Families descendant from the original Kings and Queens who founded the World Government upon sharing themselves the world some 800 years ago, just after having erased a century of History to hide the fact that their supremacy had been sitting on the annihilation of a Kingdom we ignore the name – but whose initial has high chances of being 'D' and whose heirloom is most probably transmitted from generation to generation along a family name – and that's the reason why they are trying to keep the episode secret by making the Poneglyph researches forbidden, since the huge blocks of Poneglyphs and everything else was let by this extinct Kingdom.

Clow: *speechless, blinking at his sister*

Fuu: *smiling, waiting for her mark from the self-proclaimed teacher*

Clow: *still blinking in disbelief* … you… wow… you… where are you taking that from… I mean…wow !

Fuu: *proud smile* Hihihi…

Clow: *perplexed* But just so that you know, everything you've just said about the Void Century and the rest is just pure speculation, even if it's remarkably coherent… I mean, Oda-Sensei has never revealed or corroborated any of that yet… Still, you managed to deduce all of that even without having read all of One Piece, you… wow…

Fuu: *grinning* Well… An historical intrigue with some complot theory: that was the only thing I thought was interesting in the whole scenario, and…

Clow: *thundering dark aura* Pardon? What the hell the ONLY thing…?

Fuu: *standing up to walk back a couple steps* Hum, I mean… *see the black energy of her brother growing thicker and realize she'll be dead in a second*


	13. Story IV, Quest, Wardrobe

_What happens when the deed of a fan-fiction author has modified so deeply the world of One Piece that its heroes – and guests – now have to face the paradoxes he's created?_

* * *

**Original Writing Date: **April 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe, Crossover**  
Themes: **Adventure, Romance  
**Pairings: **LuNa, ZoRo (hinted), AceXOC (for the patient ones)  
**Number of Chapters: **10 + 1 Special **/ Words: **57000 + 2000  
**Rating: **T  
**Warnings: **None  
**Credits:** All characters beside the two OC (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders across the world / All characters from the crossover universe presented here are the property of Clive Staples Lewis.  
**Guest Star:** Clow, alias Clowsama (.net/u/1552380/Clowsama)

* * *

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

…

**Fresh Beginning, out of the Wardrobe**

…

**GRAND LINE, MOBY DICK**

"Fuu!" shouted Luffy while barging in her cabin, despite all Nami trying to prevent him from entering a girl's cabin without prior consent of its owner – but without success…

Fuu raised her eyes from the letter – or rather book, considering its thickness – that her brother had left her the day before, upon leaving the Moby Dick to resume his quest… A quest of spatiotemporal paradoxes he needed to fix up, since he was the one who had involuntarily created them in One Piece Universe.

"Kyaa…" let escaped Fuu from surprise, before managing to catch back the round mirror she had dropped when Luffy had startled her, before it shattered on the wooden floor of the cabin.

The hand mirror had been left with the letter, and had been generated by the Devil Fruit power of her brother. It constituted a direct communication device with him if she had something urgent to tell him – the other way around wasn't really valid, since Clow had taken the _irritating_ habit of popping out in the middle of nowhere in his mirrors.

Up until Luffy's arrival, Fuu had spent her time reading the letter, and reading it again and again, endless times, still unable to integrate in her heart that both Clow and her were now stuck into the fictional world of One Piece because of the writing power of her brother – a power materialised here as the Kari Kari no Mi.

* * *

_His power… His doing…_

_But somehow… I can't really resent him for that… I mean, he apparently used this little conjuring trick for me – since he had never used his writing power to send his own avatar in fan-fictions before… For me… for the me he had sent into One Piece for the fun, only to realise afterwards that the ending was quite bitter-tasting…_

_Ace… Marine Ford… Tsk, I should have concealed the fact that I had gotten too deeply involved with this world, with their characters… Of course he would feel guilty seeing me crying in the real world because of what had happened here… I guess it was hard for him to see me so miserable… But I would have never expected him to go against his own principles: modifying the Story of the mangaka he respects the most… I'm still amazed!_

Fuu was recollecting the words her brother had used to characterise their both personalities.

'_Responsible'… but 'abusing one's power' to protect the ones 'dears to us from tears and despair', huh… Tsk, I feel more like I'm responsible for a huge mess! What the hell am I doing here with a Devil Fruit powerful enough to destabilise this world? No but come one: a guest more powerful than the real heroes, is it even allowed that kind of things? Nonsense… Especially since I was plain normal the first time he sent me here – well, I guess my 'normal' mode is 'weak' inside a Shounen manga, sigh… And also, since he had erased my memories, I even ended up using this power to solve a conflict between WhiteBeard and the Marines… Oh my, have I ended up modifying the Story too? No, wait a second, I think I remember WhiteBeard was supposed to… at Marine Ford… So the Story was already modified? What a headache!_

_And… how stupid of me! I really need to stop using this power for big things – even if it's easier said than done, now that I'm used to handling it – it's so useful, tsk… But well, I'm certain Clow would have never wanted me to keep it after his little 'lend' at Marine Ford: after all, sending a guest in his favourite fandom while granting her a power able to steal the spotlight from even Luffy is definitely… well, if I hadn't been his sister, I'm sure I would already be dead for such an affront… So in the end, I guess changing the Story since Marine Ford must have been hellish, and that Fruit ended up staying within me, sigh… What a jinx…_

Fuu was now remembering what Luffy had said several months ago, when she had offered him to teleport back all his dispersed nakamas: that it wouldn't be interesting!

_How right he was! First, a hero can't live his life so easily, if not, no one would want to read his adventures… And then, me too, I wouldn't want a boring adventure where no effort has to be made: uncertainty is what makes things exciting! To be honest… ultimate power… that's boring to no end, tsk… That's a bit like being immortal: everyone dreams about it but I'm sure everyone would become quite blasé of having eternal life, in the end… Okay, come on! I need to cheer up a little and take that upon me… Even if I hate being helpless, I must take my responsibilities… I guess having an ultimate power and forcing myself not to use it is a challenge against human nature itself, but let's take it on… Starting now, I will have to show that all my philosophy classes have left some imprint on me! Yosh!_

_Well… No but more seriously, philosophy course… in an idiot-looking Shounen manga like One Piece? What the hell happened in my stupid brother's mind so that he would decide to send his overly serious and Shoujo-fan big sister – not sure I should be talking about myself that way, but… – in a world as light-hearted and delirious as One Piece? I must recognise I've been very happy to have lived with them all, for all these months… overjoyed, even… something I will miss when leaving, but… But now that I know what my 'place' is, I feel like I'm betraying them, by lying to them about where I'm coming from and what I know about them… I feel like I don't deserve to have a place in this world, and it hurts… It hurts and feels unfair, and Clow is probably feeling the same way, but maybe it's just the compensation for having changed the Story of this world with the power of his Kari Kari no Mi…_

Because of this power, the universe of One Piece was now facing surprising temporal and spatial paradoxes – like the time-lag in Ohara's destruction and the duplication of Robin – and Fuu couldn't help thinking about these science-fiction movies where parallel dimensions were mixing after a spatiotemporal manipulation… but without finding in these scenarios some behaviour guidelines for herself…

Of course, on the other side, no one else was conscious of the discrepancy of the Story, even during or after the resolution of a paradox. Respecting to the Little Robin episode, the protagonists were still remembering having met with a little girl on the Moby Dick, but their memory was completely blur on the rest – exactly as were the memories of the Mugiwaras about Fuu's departure from the Thousand Sunny some eight months before that… Fuu had observed several times a slight uneasiness in Robin's eyes when the archaeologist was talking to her, or to Marco and Ace, but no one had asked explanations about the strange snatches of memories subsisting in their mind, like an instinctive remembrance…

_As if this Alternative World and the real world of One Piece were entering in collision…_

Fuu herself had spent several hours to part in her memory real recollections from 'fictional' stories… She could remember her real life in the real world… She could remember the months spent in this world, between Clow's house on Grand Line, the Moby Dick and the Thousand Sunny, while she had been sure to be fully part of this world… But above all, she could remember perfectly what the Story of this world should have been if Oda-Sensei's scenario had gone on… And each time she was thinking about it, she could feel tears welling up in her eyes, even if she had forbidden herself to let them leave her eyelids.

_The Story has changed… and I feel happy about it… but guilty to feel so at the same time, sigh… And now that the Story is bent, what can I do? What should I do? What is the best for this world, for its characters…?_

Even after an all-nighter spent thinking about it – about what was perturbing the equilibrium of this world, about what she should tell, and what she should hide, about what face to make when speaking with people who shouldn't be in front of her anymore – Fuu still didn't know how to behave with her nakamas.

* * *

But, the contagious grin of her idiot captain had instinctively eerily busted everything else… and Fuu ended up smiling whole-heartedly at the little group of pirates who had entered her cabin, abandoning all her worries and all her existential questions in the book she had just closed on the desk.

"Luffy," she answered, "What's happening?"

"An island, an ISLAND!" Luffy exclaimed while jumping on the bed with star-shaped eyes, "You're coming with us, right?"

"We finally reached the Winter Island." Nami explained while glancing through the porthole of the cabin, behind which one could see the shape of an island brushed by snowy gusts.

Because of the Buster Call and Fuu's slow recovery, WhiteBeard's Fleet – now joined by the Thousand Sunny – had indeed preferred not to dock on the island yet, and had dropped anchor in calm waters, just inside the climatic zone of the island, but without sailing closer.

_A winter island, huh?_

"Well, that's for later," Nami said upon seeing her friend glancing at the island, "For now, the head chef Marjane has called for breakfast."

"HEY?" Luffy shouted, "But… the island?"

"LATER!" Nami shouted back while baring her teeth, but Luffy was not listening anymore, two ideas having materialised above his head, the mental bubble filled with exciting adventures on the island fighting with the bubble of food without managing to decide which one was the most important for their owner.

"And your meal is already waiting for you in the dining-room, Fuu-chwan…" Sanji said while starting twirling around Fuu's chair with heart-shaped eyes, his usual love-love mode activating at the sight of a girl, "It's a special breakfast with high recovery capacities, a wonderful recipe from Kamabakka made with all my heart for an angel still convalescing!"

But Sanji stopped his love-love twirl when he saw the cigarette end he always had in his mouth suddenly being set in fire with some alarming proportions.

"Ace!" Luffy exclaimed while jumping back on his feet to go and greet the new visitor at the cabin's door-step, giving his brother a manly clap in his hand, allied with his usual idiot grin.

"Oyaji called everyone in the dining-room, Fuu." Ace said with his outgoing grin looking so much like the smiley of his hat, "We'll take our orders and disembark after that…"

"Oh, sure!" Fuu answered while standing up, putting away her brother's letter and mirror inside the drawer of the wooden desk, "I'm dressing up and I'm coming! I'm really sorry for being late…"

And Fuu run towards the wardrobe, opened wide its doors and started searching for something to wear amidst the clothes that Nami had borrowed and brought for her the day before.

TILT. But upon not hearing the door of the cabin closing down after her visitors, Fuu stopped what she was doing to slowly glance back at them, forcing a smile on her lips.

"Come on, Fuu!" Luffy said with an impatient tone, his arms crossed in front of his chest, but without moving from where he was standing.

BONG. Nami's fist had suddenly landed on the heads of Luffy, Ace and Sanji, before tactlessly throwing them in the corridor.

"Guys, OUTSIDE!" she shouted while slamming the door behind them.

"Hihihi…" Fuu couldn't help but laugh, a little drop of sweat still on her temple, "Thanks, Nami!"

"You're most welcome, tsk! If we stay polite, they don't understand… this group of fools…" Nami said with a vein bumping on her forehead.

She then heaved a deep sigh and turned back to help Fuu rummaging into the wardrobe to find her some appropriate outfit.

"Okay… Since we're going on a Winter Island, we need to find you some warm clothes, but not too much or you will end up boiling up when we will stay inside…" Nami commented, as the good expert she was in this domain.

She looked at some jumpers and vests with shared expression, before throwing them on the bed.

"Well, that's a bit complicated, since you usually wear nice dresses with ribbons and things like that, right?" Nami asked with a short glance for the white nightgown Fuu was wearing.

"Hum, not necessarily…" Fuu confessed with a surprised expression.

_That's just that, up until now, my brother had always sent me in this world in the middle of the night – correction: in the middle of my dreams – so of course I was wearing my nightgowns…_

"But if I can give you some advice," Nami began with a hesitating tone, "You should change your style… because we always end up in some fight with this bunch of idiots! Some of my clothes have already ended up in shambles…"

_I know what you mean… _thought Fuu while remembering the state of her previous nightgown destroyed by Admiral Kizaru's attack.

"So something as sexy and fragile as your outfit from yesterday is out of the question!" Nami said while piling up clothes on the bed.

_That was a nightgown… not my preferred battle outfit, you know… _mentally rectified Fuu, _And respecting to the sexy fan-service, I leave it be, no problem…_

"We can't just let you walk around this Fleet filled with perverts in this kind of clothes…" Nami pursued with an angry tone and a trembling fist while recollecting the same nightgown in shambles and Ace 'pouncing' on Fuu the day before.

"Don't worry about that, Nami. The rare perverts of this Fleet are starting to fear my electric shocks!" Fuu Fuu while examining a grey velvet pant, "And you know, I'm already grateful to you for lending me all these clothes, so I'm not going to be spoiled and do in function of the others… »

"You'd better, indeed: they're a real bunch of idiots!" Nami sighed while rummaging a bit more in the wardrobe, "There's really none of them to raise the level up!"

Fuu laughed while thinking about the three 'idiots' that Nami had sent flying in the corridor some minutes ago, and kept on looking for something warm amidst the piles of clothes that Nami had borrowed from the rare women among the WhiteBeard's Pirates – perfectly knowing by experience that her own clothes weren't fitting Fuu most of the time.

"Hum… It mustn't be easy, right? You and Luffy?" Fuu smiled while finally taking out a pair of boots from the wardrobe.

Nami blushed slightly – more the annoyed type than the embarrassed one – and acquiesced with a sulking expression. Fuu softly smiled at the change of expression of her nakama – who had managed to be so determined about guys in general but hesitant about one of them in particular – and started changing her clothes.

In the end, Nami and Fuu had agreed on a look very… _pirate! _Fuu thought while looking at the high leather boots, the velvet pant, the tanned leather belt, the ample-sleeved white shirt, the thick V-necked cardigan, and the long coat of Sea-King leather doubled with wool that resembled an officer coat.

"Wow!" admitted Nami, "That kind of style suits you a lot too! Especially when tying your curly hair up with a ribbon… That looks really… really…"

_Pirate-ish… _wanted to complete Fuu, but she kept it for herself, _Well, pirate as they are pictured in my world, pirates from the era of Galleons and battles in the Caribbean Sea… I only miss the sword and the three-cornered hat and I would look like Jack Sparrow… well, without locks, that is!_

And while smiling at this idea, Fuu followed Nami out of the cabin to go and meet with WhiteBeard, Ace, the Mugiwaras and everyone else in the dining-room.

* * *

**MOBY DICK, DINING-ROOM**

The arrival of the two girls went completely unnoticed, all the pirates in the room being apparently focused on something else, the hubbub of the commotion seeming several tones over the usual noisy mood during meals.

Nami felt deeply vexed by the lack of welcoming reactions, and dragged Fuu at the Mugiwaras' table, internally cursing the lack of sensibility of the surrounding public.

"Ah, Nami-san, Fuu-chan!" Sanji began with a slightly panicked tone, "Look at that, it's…"

But Sanji stopped abruptly in the middle of his sentence to look at Fuu from head to toes.

"Fuu-chwan! That's just sumptuous! A sight worthy from paradise!" Sanji exclaimed while squirming around the two girls with heart-shaped eyes.

Nami grinned and gave a thumb-up to Fuu, who just sighed with embarrassment while the cook was twirling around her with a dumb love-stoned expression.

"Fuu-chwan, why not opening a little more the buttons of this wonderful shirt?" Sanji giggled while staring at Fuu's cleavage with flushed cheeks, and lifting his hands closer to the aforementioned buttons with a perverted grin, "Hiding such a beautiful body… we're not under the snow yet…"

But before Fuu had had the time to realise what Sanji was planning – and which had probably brought him an electric shock or a punch from Nami before that – Sanji screamed of pain while taking his enflamed butt in his hands to try and smother the fire, before finally grabbing a jug of water on the table and water his pant, under the amused look of Nami who eyed a cool and expressionless Ace with a conniving expression.

But Fuu had missed the entire scene, because at the very same moment, Luffy had grabbed her arm and rewinded his elastic arm back, in order to pull Fuu on the other side of the table by above.

"Luffy!" Fuu lecture while knocking him out with a punch on his head to remind him that she wasn't in rubber, HER, and that repatriating her by elastic arms was definitely a dangerous idea, especially respecting to the landing!

"But…!" protested Luffy, "Look, Fuu, look at this!"

And Luffy hid himself behind a wanted poster that had arrived the very same morning with the newspaper, and which had been a hot topic of conversation around the whole crew since then.

Fuu immediately stopped the second punch she had prepared for the culprit, and stared at the wanted poster with incredulous eyes. The picture was showing a girl in a short white dress, sitting on the railing of a ship under the starry sky, a book in her hand and her two immaculate wings shining through the night.

Fuu first wondered _how the hell _they had managed to take such a picture, then started blushing furiously at how _embarrassing _this picture was, before suddenly realising something was odd.

"Wait a..." suddenly paused Fuu at scrutinizing the poster minutely, "Th... This pose... It's a drawing!"

"Yep 'f course it is!" suddenly came by a strongly built okama who had been one of the WhiteBeard's Pirates allies before ending up at Impel Down, and who has chosen to join the crew after Marine Ford - his main job on-board being to mend and 'create' outfits for the crew, styling having been the favourite hobbies he'd learnt back in jail with the Newkamas.

_Of course it is...? Well, sure, I mean I would never take naturally such a perfect model-like pose, let alone use my wings that way, even if I like sitting on the railing..._ Fuu thought with a blush of shame at seeing the sweet pose at the perfect angle with both wings spread without even seeming to catch the wind.

"B... But why...?" she mumbled out loud as her brain couldn't give her a rational explanation as to why the Marines would make and use such a drawing of her while placing a bounty on her head, "H... How...?"

"Simple, sweetie. We couldn't allow these ruffians to use an unworthy picture of our dear angel so we sent the perfect one to them!" the okama giggled patronizingly with a proud pose.

TILT. Fuu's eyes twitched into a disapprobation stare and a little vein of annoyance came to meet a big sweat-drop on her temple.

"You... made it... and sent it... to the Marine Headquaters...?" repeated Fuu with a baffled tone, her expression starting to harden of anger.

_Do they take me for a Japanese idol in need of promotion or something? I don't even know if should feel angry or ashamed-to-death…_

"Well, it's not like our sweetie is the only one without official photograph." kept on the jazzy okama who didn't apparently mind the obvious reproachful glare Fuu was giving him, "So we just passed it to them anonymously. It sure was nice of us to help them, hohohohohoho..."

"We know for sure that all the photographs of you have disappeared, although a couple of them had been taken during Marine Ford." suddenly cut a familiar calm yet jesting mature voice.

"Marco..." Fuu turned her head toward the tall blond Commander who had come to meet with their table.

"We've got a couple spies in the Marine's offices after all, oy..." he explained with a cunning grin, "But the interesting point is that, on top of having had _someone_ destroy all pictures of you, the prototype of your wanted poster has been delayed and forgotten ever since the War, as if _someone_ had played a trick on the printers' minds to make them forget about it... Oy, isn't that lucky…?"

Fuu forced a smile, having a bad feeling about the sagacious way Marco was insisting on this 'someone' who couldn't have been anyone but her brother.

Fortunately, that was the perfect timing Zoro chose to point at something on the poster Fuu was still holding in her hands.

"Tsk, don't mind the picture." cut the green-haired swordsman who was inwardly a little relieved he didn't get such an embarrassing picture on his own poster, while Sanji was once again crying and ranting about his-own-picture-not-being-that-cool-although-it-was-also-a-drawing but still he was so-happy-for-his-lovely-Fuu-chan-who-was-so-cute-on-this-drawing, "Look at the bounty!"

Fuu's attention switched back on the poster. Because inevitably, under the name 'Tenshi no Fuu' – contracted form of 'Tenshibito no Fuu' meaning 'Fuu from the Nation of the Angels', _Oh come on, they couldn't have found me a more original nickname, these Marines, if they ignored my real family name?_ _Here comes the second biggest embarrassment of the day, even if I can understand the concept-image due to the 'spell' I used at Marine Ford…_– was printed her bounty: 80 millions of Berrys.

…

"You have the same bounty as me." Robin sighed with an accomplice smile, "Somehow, it is rather logical… after all, they put the two of us in the category of the 'Monsters' dangerous for this world!"

TILT. Robin seemed to suddenly realise that what she had just said sounded weird and that she couldn't really remember where she had heard such a comment, but before she could dwell on it, the rest of the Mugiwaras started sharing their opinions on the matter too, and Robin's thoughts got lost amidst them.

"80 millions…" Fuu mumbled while panicking about a certain brother of hers who will definitely be mad at her for that.

"80 millions, that's not the problem, tsk…" Zoro groaned, "The problem it's about the 'Dead or Alive' option…"

_Option…?_

And Fuu looked back at the poster.

Indeed, at the place where should have been printed the mention, one could read an 'option' rather different: "Dead or Alive, Preferably Dead: + 100 millions".

Fuu's face got suddenly as white as a sheet.

"So, to sum up…" Ace said – having approached closer to Fuu – with a tensed expression, "Your bounty is worth 180 millions of Berrys if someone delivers your dead body to the Marines! Hum, Marines…? Tsk, that really doesn't look like something Sengoku will do… So that means someone above him gave the order: the World Government really wants to see you dead!"

Fuu was taking the shock in silently.

_I guess… since they have discovered the real nature of my Devil Fruit, it is… only fair… Oh, damn it, Clow is going to lecture me hard-core again, telling me that people from the real world should NOT show off on Grand Line!_

_Wait! More seriously, printing a wanted poster insisting so that bounty hunters kill me is a serious problem. My power is ridiculously powerful, but I don't have any superhuman strength like the others… I am really weak as a manga character, even as a guest, a bit like a level-100 mage in a RPG: completely useless in a close-quarters combat! If I end up being attacked by surprise or with Kairoseki, like during the Buster Call, I will… I will…_

Cold sweats started appearing on Fuu's neck because of anxiety, and her eyes started rolling and losing focus while she was trying hard to evaluate the situation.

But she suddenly felt a peaceful and warm hand caressing her head, and she came back to reality to look at the one who was trying to comfort her.

"Hey, looks like I'm still the more dangerous from the both of us!" Ace grinned with a composed yet teasing smile.

_Says the one for whom a Bounty Hunter could request billions of Berrys as a price, now that everyone officially knows what blood runs in his veins… _Fuu faintly smiled, strangely comforted by the thoughts of seeing the most wanted man of the Five Blue make a joke of the situation.

"No way! That's MY bounty the highest!" Luffy claimed while flexing his chest muscles, "Mine is at 400 millions!"

"That's still lower than my last one, heehee!" Ace mocked with a challenging smirk for his brother.

"Hum, 80 millions, that's more than Sanji, right?" was trying to calculate Usopp.

"Indeed…" confirmed Brook, before looking at Sanji and heaving a deep sigh of compassion for the cook, "And the picture if better too."

"That's not important!" Sanji tilted while baring his teeth.

"Yeah, and 180 millions, that's even more than Zoro!" Franky added with a provoking laugh.

"Hey!" yelled Zoro, hurt in his pride.

"Fuu…" Chopper sobbed while looking at her with teary eyes, "Why have you got such a high bounty? Mine is still only 50 Berrys…"

"That's because they don't know the real Chopper is way more powerful…" Nami comforted, her comment making Chopper dance with joy even if he was denying being happy.

_Oh my… I had forgotten they were the kind of people to take that lightly… Even if I must confess they're right: what is done is done, and worrying about it won't bring me anything good, hum…_

"Fuu," called the calm and low voice of WhiteBeard, who had walked closer to the table during the discussion, "You don't have to worry. You are safe with us!"

Fuu glanced at the imposing Captain with a guilty yet moved smile.

_It's rather you who are going to be in danger because of me, tsk… Thinking about it, I had promised myself not to cause them any trouble: that's a monumental miss! I really need to slap myself for that, sigh…_

WhiteBeard looked at the worried face of the girl with his usual – rather unusual – doting father smile.

"Don't worry! I won't let them even touch my favourite daughter-in-law!" WhiteBeard added while patting Fuu's head with this fatherly expression that was still making the rest of his crew hallucinate for how odd it looked, in comparison with his customary Yonkou aura.

"DAUGHTER-IN-LAW?" shouted the Mugiwaras, their eyes bulging out of their sockets.

"Would you please stop this joke about a daughter-in-law?" Fuu sighed – already used to it so barely blushing anymore, "We've got on-board some people ready to believe anything one would say…"

And Fuu glanced back at the Mugiwaras, but it was already too late to refute the information: Sanji was already teary and biting a handkerchief of misery; Luffy was happily jumping and claiming he had been right; Zoro had drawn his sword and was challenging Ace with a dark stare; Usopp was trying to explain to Chopper was 'daughter-in-law' meant, and the mouth of the little reindeer unhooked in a CLONG when he understood was it implied; Brook was offering to play a wedding march, and Franky was already assembling the organ necessary for that; only Nami and Robin were sighing while shrugging their shoulders, already used to this kind of reactions.

_Somehow… I feel like this joke is making more of an impression on them than the news about my bounty… _Fuu thought while repressing a laugh.

"Whitebeard," she began while looking straight into the Yonkou's eyes, "Please do not concern yourself with me. I'll be fine! I'm planning on staying alive… and free!"

The Captain answered this declaration with a conniving smile, before glancing at his son – and Second Fleet Commander – who was heating Zoro's katana between his fingers, under the horrified look of the swordsman and the amused laugh of Marco.

"Yeah… We should be able to grant your some protection, gurararara…" WhiteBeard mumbled while laughing on the sly, before putting his impressive Yonkou's air back on his face.

He turned back in an impressive air throwing of his cape-like coat, and called the entire crew to attention.

"Everyone, get ready to disembark and restock! Exploration Team: report for duty!"


	14. Story IV, Special, SongFic Ace

**Original Writing Date: **April 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes:** Romance **/ ****Pairings: **AceXOC  
**Number of Chapters: **SP **/ Words: **2700  
**Rating: **T  
**Warnings: **Spoilers Marine Ford Arc  
**Credits:** Lyrics of the song: "Ce qui me Touche" by Cesar (CV: Christopher Stills) from the French Musical "Cléopâtre, La Dernière Reine d'Egypte" **/** Original Song on YouTube: watch?v=pCTej5gTtiY.

* * *

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

**…**

Song-Fic: Ace X Fuu ~Ce Qui Me Touche (What Touches Me)~

**…**

**NEW WORLD, FIMBUL'S SURROUNDING AREA, THOUSAND SUNNY**

While waiting for the Mugiwaras to get ready to disembark on the new Winter Island they had dropped anchor at, Ace was patiently walking around the Thousand Sunny, a bit curious about the new ship of his little brother. He had been attached to Fuu's protection by order from his father WhiteBeard– even if the girl involved ignored it – and no one else within the Mugiwaras had found strange for him to travel with them.

_Not that I want to complain about Oyaji's decision… on the contrary, but… _thought Ace while massaging his neck at the remembrance of his Captain little conversation with Luffy and him, con respect with the girl in question and her power – about which they had had some update by her brother before he left the Moby Dick.

The decision had been unanimously agreed on, but that wasn't what was troubling Ace… What was troubling him was that the more he was looking at Fuu, the more he was feeling some possessive jealousy building up inside him, more than he had never felt before, and so strong that it didn't even spare his little brother.

_When he told her to come with them… Tsk! What was I thinking? It's Luffy! Come on, it's just Luffy! Marco is right, I'd better try and think about it to clear up my head… _sighed Ace while remembering Marco's advice to him, just before his departure for the island with the Exploration Team.

And trying to focus his attention on something else, he started walking around the different corridors of the ship, exploring the docks, startling Chopper in the infirmary before apologising very politely to the little doctor, and pursuing his walk under the main deck.

While passing through Usopp's shed and workshop, he accidentally bumped into a shelf, from which fall numerous things more or less weird that the professional liar was stocking in wooden boxes. While repressing a swearword, Ace swiftly caught back half-a-dozen of items on which gravity had reclaimed its rights and who seemed to want and join the pile of broken material nearby the shelf, but despite his effort, Ace's hands were too full for the last objest, and a Dial fall on the ground.

It switched on… A strange and melancholic tune escaped from it… a song that curiously echoed into Ace's heart.

_**

* * *

Traverser de longs déserts,**__** (Crossing endless and vast deserts)**__**  
**__**Me relever à bras le corps**__**, (Standing tall and unaffected)**_

_Why am I always thinking about her? That never happened with other girls, or even with Luffy's nakamas, like when Nami and this Princess Vivi were dressed up as desert dancers and were clinging to me at each big lizard coming their way at Alabasta…_

_**Quand parfois, tout reste à faire,**__** (When everything seems to remain undone)**__**  
**__**Etre seul, face au dehors. **__**(Feeling alone, yet never showing it)**_

_When I was chained in my cell, in Impel Down, with plenty of time to meditate alone about my past, not once did the face of a girl appeared in my memories… I didn't even consider at that time that I wouldn't like to die before having found a girl precious to me: this kind of stupid romantic things, that's so not like me!_

_**Entendre ce qu'on dit de moi,**__** (Hearing what people can say about me)**__**  
**__**Le pire du mal, l'éloge du bien. **__**(The worst of evil, the best of good)**_

_When I was a child, I've always hated the blood running in my veins, the blood of my father, the blood of this criminal that everyone hated and blamed to no end, the worst father ever who had abandoned my mother and let her die… Who cares about fame when you're living alone? Who cares who your father is when you've never met him?_

_**Laisser derrière moi les pas**__**, (Leaving behind me the fate)**__**  
**__**D'un homme à l'ultime destin. **__**(Of a man with the ultimate destiny)**_

_When Sengoku announced to the world who I really was, on this scaffold, I really felt awful… I thought that my past was coming back for me and that I would become once more someone that the entire world would want to eradicate or acclaim, but not for who I was: just for who was my father! I felt despair… I felt bitterness and misery… And suddenly, she appeared, as if falling from the sky…_

_**Est-ce que cela me touche vraiment ? **__**(Does all of this really touch me?)**_

_Have something changed at this very moment?_

_**

* * *

Ce qui me touche, c'est toi (What touches me, it's you)**_

_The face I can draw without having it under my eyes, it's the face of an eerie girl who pulled me out from my execution platform, even though she looks fragile…_

_**Et le bruit de tes pas (And the echo of your footsteps)**_

_The sound I'm always looking out for, even when half-asleep, it's the rustle of her wings that unexpectedly bring her towards me…_

_**Ce qui fait mal, c'est toi (What hurts, it's you)**_

_What had destroyed my heart during that war, that was seeing her abusing her power to help people around her, neglecting her own life for pirates she didn't even know… for me she had barely met for the first time… while me, I was helpless in supporting her…_

_**Quand tu es loin de moi (When you're far away from me)**_

_What was keeping me awake on watch duty in the look-out of the Moby Dick, it was to wonder about her: about where she was, about how she was, about who she was with… and more than everything else, to wonder when she will be back…_

_**Ce qui me brûle, c'est ta peau (What burns me, it's your skin)**_

_I'm the one with a Fire Logia, but still… what makes my body burn from the inside, it's when her skin accidently brushes mine…_

_**Quand d'autres en rêvent trop (When others dream about it)**_

_And when our crewmates look at her too persistently, my head and my fist overheat too, telling me to send these rivals out of sight…_

_**Ce qui fait peur, c'est tes envies (What frightens me, it's your desires)**_

_Worst, when Luffy landed on the Moby Dick with his nakamas, saying he had come for her, for the first time in my life, I wanted to send him back on the seas…_

_**Quand je n'en fais plus partie (When they don't include me)**_

_Just because I was afraid she will join them and leave me behind…_

_**

* * *

Autour des ombres infidèles,**__** (Amidst treachery and shadows)**__**  
**__**Risquer ma vie à chaque instant. **__**(Risking my live every second of it)**_

_I've always been someone ready to confront anybody! Be it a Shichibukai, a Yonkou, Teach's Yami Yami no Mi or the Marine Admirals: it didn't matter who I needed to face, I just forged my path by myself, without taking anyone along with me…_

_**Et pendant que d'autres sommeillent,**__** (And while others are still sleeping)**__**  
**__**Gagner du terrain et du temps. **__**(Going forward and opening a path)**_

_Way before Luffy entered Grand Line, I was already doing my best to follow what I thought was my goal, my dream… true to my life of pirate and the tattoo on my back… I've never thought that something more important than all of that could appear in my life…_

_**Traverser de longs déserts,**__** (Crossing endless and vast deserts)**__**  
**__**Me relever à bras le corps**__**, (Standing tall and unaffected)**_

_I crossed Grand Line to get rid of a traitor, without even caring about what was waiting for me… In the end, I was defeated, imprisoned and condemned to death… I thought I would never get up again from this scaffold…_

_**Quand parfois, tout reste à faire,**__** (When everything seems to remain undone)**__**  
**__**Etre seul, face au dehors. **__**(Feeling alone, yet never showing it)**_

_At Marine Ford, amidst the surrounding chaos, I fight and opened up a path with my brother on the battlefield, facing my responsibilities and letting our allies prepare their retreat…_

_**Est-ce que cela me touche vraiment ? **__**(Does all of this really touch me?)**_

_But was it really for my nakamas or for the mysterious girl who was betting her life on her teleportation 'spell'?_

_**

* * *

Ce qui me touche, c'est toi (What touches me, it's you)**_

_The face that started appearing in my mind, in my dreams, starting that moment, it was the face of a girl blushing furiously when I was teasing her but still seriously helping me and healing me while she was already on the verge of fainting…_

_**Et le son de ta voix (And the sound of your voice)**_

_The voice I could hear amidst a thousand on this battlefield, begging me not to fight Akainu and take the teleportation 'spell', it was the one of this girl out of breath but whose eyes speak all the words of this world…_

_**Ce qui fait mal, c'est tes bras (What hurts, it's your arms)**_

_What makes me clench my fists until they bleed, it's to remember her putting her hand on my cheek and apologising to me for not having kept her promise of not using her power…_

_**S'ils s'ouvrent à d'autres que moi (When they open for others than me)**_

_What makes me want to roar of jealousy, it's to see her unconscious in Marco's or Luffy's arms, after a difficult battle…_

_**Ce qui me tue, c'est ton cœur (What kills me, it's your heart)**_

_What makes my heart forget to beat, it's to feel her body temperature dropping insanely fast when she releases her 'spells' and let exhaustion catch her back…_

_**Quand ses battements me leurrent (When its heartbeats deceive me)**_

_And still wondering, in these moments, if her silence is only the quietness of slumber or of something worst…_

_**Ce qui fait mal, c'est tes envies (What hurts, it's your desires)**_

_What hurts to the point I want to scream, it's when I realise I would like to lock her up somewhere where she would see no one needing help, so that she wouldn't threaten her own life to save them…_

_**Moi le témoin de ta vie (For me, the spectator in your life)**_

_And to realise I don't want to let go of her, afraid that life would leave her body when my arms will release her…_

_**

* * *

De tes envies (Your desires)**_

_All of that because she used her 'spells' to help someone again…_

_**De ta vie (Your life)**_

_All of that because she takes everything on her shoulders without caring about the consequences for her own life…_

_**De tes envies (Your desires)**_

_All of that to protect the ones dear to her, this baka…_

_**

* * *

Ce qui me touche, c'est toi (What touches me, it's you)**_

_The one without whom I can't live anymore, it's a smiling girl, determined and foolhardy, who spreads her angel wings to cross the morning sky and innocently land in my arms…_

_**Et le son de ta voix (And the sound of your voice)**_

_The voice without which I can't fall asleep anymore, it's hers, her voice who whispers my name before tenderly kissing my forehead with a healing kiss…_

_**Ce qui fait mal, c'est tes bras (What hurts, it's your arms)**_

_What let me dejected, it's to see her wings bringing her across the seas to go and help Luffy and his nakamas…_

_**S'ils s'ouvrent à d'autres que moi (When they open for others than me)**_

_What drives me mad, recently, it's to be unable to control the fury eating me when I see her smiling to others than me…_

_**Ce qui me tue, c'est ton cœur (What kills me, it's your heart)**_

_And what worries me to death, it's to not know how she feels about me…_

_**Quand ses battements me leurrent (When its heartbeats deceive me)**_

_Can I believe in the sound of her heartbeats accelerating when I'm near her?_

_**Ce qui fait mal, c'est tes envies (What hurts, it's your desires)**_

_Can I believe that if she stays near me, it's because she desires it?_

_**Moi le témoin de ta vie (For me, the spectator in your life)**_

_Or is it just that life had brought us towards each other to separate us afterwards?_

_**Ce qui me touche, c'est toi (What touches me, it's you)**_

_But the only one who touches me like that, it's her!_

_**Ce qui fait mal, c'est toi (What hurts, it's you)**_

_The one making my heart hurt so much, it's her!_

_**(Ce qui fait mal, c'est toi (What hurts, it's you))**_

_The one making me forget my other dreams just to stay near her, it's her!_

_**Ce qui me tue, c'est toi (What kills me, it's you)**_

_The one making me dying of jealousy when I see her with another guy, it's her!_

_**C'est toi (It's you)**_

_Her and only her!_

_**Ce qui fait mal, c'est tes envies (What hurts, it's your desires)**_

_Her whose selfless wishes I accept, ready to follow her to the ends of this world…_

_**Moi le témoin de ta vie (For me, the spectator in your life)**_

_Her, about whom I wish she would let me share a bit of her burden and a lot of her existence…_

* * *

The music escaping from the Dial quieted down…

And along the last notes dying out in the air, Ace slided on the floor with a deep sigh.

_I have to acknowledge that I am more seriously affected than what I had admitted in front of Marco or the others… _thought Ace while massaging his neck.

He gazed at the Dial with a shared expression, and seconds, minutes flew on the silent and desert room.

"Ace!" suddenly rang out the voice he would recognise in a thousand.

Fuu had popped in the workshop half-open door, and was looking at him with a radiant smile.

"Found you!" said she with a joyful expression.

"Cheater…" mumbled Ace without raising his eyes out of the shadow of his hat.

And he suddenly caught her right wrist to pull her to him.

CRASH. Fuu fall down on the floor of the workshop, at the feet of the shelves, right on the person who had attracted her into his arms.

"You used my Vivre Card, aren't you?" teased Ace when finally sending a provoking smile to his prisoner, while designating the glass pearl at her leather bracelet.

"Th… that's not cheating… I mean, nobody knew where you were, so… so…" blushed feverishly Fuu while trying to get out of Ace's embrace.

"Hum… That's not for that reason that I called you cheater…" whispered Ace's at Fuu's ear, making her blush a bit more under the caress of his breath.

Fuu starting struggling, and Ace's eyes gradually fall back in the shadows of his hat, before slowly drawing back and distancing himself from her.

"Ace?" asked Fuu with a surprised tone, while innocently raising her eyes towards the one who was acting weird, perfectly unaware of the influence she had on the person holding her on to his chest.

"Nothing much…" whispered Ace, before regretfully releasing his prisoner.

Still perplexed, Fuu stood up instantly and turned back to walk towards to door, letting Ace suppress a melancholic sigh when contemplating the back of the girl whose feelings he couldn't conjecture…

But just when he was finally resigning himself to follow her, Fuu swiftly turned back and stretched out her both hands towards Ace to incite him standing up.

"Everyone is ready, are you coming?" asked the tender voice without which he couldn't do, while the owner of the voice was gently asking for his hand.

"Coming…" sighed Ace with a faint smile, upon putting his hand in Fuu's.


	15. Story IV, Quest, Beaver

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

**…**

Amidst Icy Snow & Hot Onsen, a Beaver

…

**NEW WORLD, FIMBUL, WINTER ISLAND**

"Wow! Great!" shouted Luffy, overjoyed, raising his hand at the level of his eyes to contemplate the immense field of snow covering the valleys, the forests, and the faraway black mountains of Fimbul, "Our first island in the New World!"

"It looks like Drum Island…" marvelled Chopper, with a slightly melancholic tone.

"It's freezing!" shivered Usopp, a drop frozen under his long nose.

"In need of a warm fire?" generously asked Ace, detached to Luffy's exploration team by order from WhiteBeard.

_Luffy, your Niisan is a good person! _thought Usopp while approaching his trembling hands to the vivid flame Ace had switched on in his own hand.

"Humph, if you're cold, it's just that your body is not trained enough." dryly commented Zoro, though he himself was wearing a warm coat.

"Nami-swan, Robin-chwan, Fuu-chwan, are you cold, my goddesses? Do you need me to help you getting warmer?" proposed Sanji while twirling around the three girls.

"Franky and Brook stayed on-board… and I feel like we should have let the others too…" sighed Nami while clenching her fist, a vein starting to appear on her temple.

"We need to restock some food, and we still ignore how long the Log Pose is going to take to record the new magnetic wave, so let's bear with it." said Robin with a neutral tone and an amused look for Luffy, Chopper and Usopp who had started a snow-ball battle.

Half-a-minute later, the fight had involved Zoro, when a miss from Luffy had hit him in his head. And Sanji had joined the battle when Zoro had furiously attacked him with tons of snow when the cook had laughed at the swordsman's face looking like frosted seaweed. Ace had also melted several snow-balls which seemed more like destined to him than missed shots. Nami had shouted at them to stop acting childishly, before finally joining the battle under Luffy's encouraging smile. And Robin had merely settled with forwarding lost balls coming her way through a revolution of 'Calendula'.

_Oh my… I had forgotten, sigh! They can be dead serious when they need to fight bad guys, but the rest of the time, they're a real bunch of kids, hihihi… But well, I guess that it's because they're like that that I'm so fond of them, now… _though Fuu while repressing a laughter.

"Something funny?" asked Ace while coming closer to her.

"Not especially…" smiled Fuu, "I was just thinking that it's nice to travel with them…"

"Hum… True, you never get bored with them!" confirmed Ace with a smile, when looking at his little brother sprawling in the snow.

The little entertaining interlude had of course made the Mugiwaras, Fuu and Ace lose sight of WhiteBeard's expedition team – lead by Marco and made of a little dozen of his nakamas, the line-up being in charge of ordering supply for the entire Fleet, and of locking all the different Log Poses of their navigators on the magnetic waves of the next island. The team was composed of men – and women, since it was counting three of the rare feminine pirates of WhiteBeard's crew – of trust, who were always landing first, as a vanguard in charge of scouting the place for information and supplies, without making the locals panicking at the sight of a whole Fleet of pirates.

But Luffy being… Luffy… he had absolutely wanted to land on the new island too, at the same time – or rather a bit later, since the Mugiwaras were always late in preparing themselves – as Marco's team, in order to explore the place with his own nakamas, and maybe discover some great adventure-to-be.

And Luffy being Luffy, they had already forgotten the main goal of their little exploration plan for some funny game in the snow…

"According to you, how long before we should thought about stopping them and pursuing our exploration?" thus asked Robin while approaching Fuu and Ace.

Fuu then turned her head towards the archaeologist, planning to answer her in a little laugh that it should be considered under the next few minutes, but a missed shot from Luffy prevented her from doing so: the snow-ball exploded on the side of her head, projecting showers of snowflakes in her hazelnut curls.

"AAAHHHH! Luffy, what the heck did you do?" yelled Sanji, before blitzing his captain with new batteries of snow-balls, in order to get revenge for his tender damsel.

"Hum… Sanji?" tried to interrupt Fuu, raising her hand with a drop of bluntness appearing at her temple, "That's not really…"

But the noisy snow battle covered her voice, and Fuu finally abandoned any idea of speaking her way out of it. With a deep sigh of amused weariness, she thus started to shake off her hair curls, one by one, to get rid of the snow.

_To be honest, it's very funny, snow battles: I like them too… but it's just that my hair is always a handful when I need to clean it from snow, tree leaves or this kind of things, sigh… And even if I'm living in this world, I'm not like manga characters who manage to keep their looks immaculate even after apocalyptic fights and twisters, tsk…_

And amidst her inner complaints about her brother not having added a special auto-recovered-appearance option in the little conjuring trick that had integrated the both of them in One Piece Universe, Fuu felt a warm hand caressing her face to dust away the snow.

She raised some surprised yet grateful eyes towards Ace, who was delicately shaking off the snowflakes from her hair.

"Sorry… I should have melted that ball!" apologised he, half laughing.

"Of course not, it's not that important!" answered Fuu with a smile, but feeling a bit strange when sensing Ace's fingers brushing against her skin.

_Why do I feel like my cheeks are way warmer than what the outside temperature should normally allow?_

"Oh, and by the way…" added Fuu, a bit self-conscious about what she could see right in front of her eyes, "Are you not… feeling… cold?"

And she averted her eyes from Ace's bare chest – who had merely thrown a black coat on his shoulders without bothering buttoning it, and changed his orange hat for a similar black one – unconsciously wondering why seeing him half-dressed-up was more awkward for her than seeing him topless as he usually was.

"Hum, do you want to prove it?" provoked Ace with a mischievous smile, while catching her hand to pull her on to him.

"Kyaaa…" let escape Fuu as she was stumbling in the knee-high snow, before falling flat in front of her in a spray of snowflakes.

"WOW! Fuu, homerun!" whistled Luffy out of admiration, "You managed to make Ace fall in the snow? That's just amazing! Me, even when pushing with all my strength, he doesn't budge an inch!"

"We rather call that using the weak-point of the target," smiled Robin who had followed the entire scene, "But I guess it can also be called a homerun, somehow…"

"ACE! What the heck do you think you're doing to Fuu-chan?" shouted Sanji with flame-shaped eyes, while walking angrily towards the two people sprawling one on each other in the snow.

"That's not…" began Fuu, turning scarlet in a microsecond, while trying to get back on her feet, but her hand was slipping in the snow at each tentative to gain some support to stand up, making her falling back on the person under her.

_Hey? _thought Fuu when she finally stopped her desperate efforts upon feeling someone lifting her up by her arm as if she was feathery.

"Honestly…" sighed Zoro while putting Fuu back on her feet, before darkly staring at Ace, still sitting in the snow, and who had voluntarily kept the girl's hand in his.

"Thanks for your help…" screeched Ace with a mischievous smile, silently provoking the swordsman.

"You're welcome…" retorted Zoro with a deadly glare, and without letting go of Fuu's arm.

_Huh?_

"Yare yare…" giggled Robin upon contemplating the panicked and incredulous look of Fuu who was glancing at the two guys with concern, not understanding why they seemed out to get each other, all of a sudden.

"Hum hum…" slightly coughed Nami, "When you will FINALLY be ready, we could MAYBE leave for the main village… WhiteBeard's team is already far away, for your information…"

"HEY? Marco and the others? They left before us to explore?" exclaimed Luffy while glancing around him in search of the team in question, "Not fair!"

And he suddenly dashed with a very competitive spirit towards the direction of the faraway inhabitations, on the snowy valley side.

"Hey, Luffy?" shouted Nami to try and hold him up, but in vain.

Luffy was already out of sight…

And with a sigh of deep world-weariness, the rest of the group left in search for their captain, but way more slowly than him, because the deep snow was making the walk difficult.

Minutes flew by, and Usopp was now closing the procession, since Ace had strafed him hard-core when the professional liar had asked Fuu if she could make all of them fly to the village with her power. But as an alternative and apology for his sudden outburst, the Second Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet was now opening the path, clearing away the snow with his flames.

And they finally reunited with Luffy, who had stopped in the middle of the way to the valley, happily chatting with… a beaver.

"Luffy?" called Ace upon getting near to his brother.

"Shishishi, this beaver is really nice! He's invited us to come and eat at his place! His family owns an inn!" said Luffy with a large grin of anticipation and a drooling expression at the thought of the food in question.

"The beaver can SPEAK?" exclaimed the rest of the pirates, with a little panel of surprised reactions.

"Of course we can speak!" answered the beaver, quite vexed, before turning to Luffy to add: "Your friends are very rude!"

"No, no, shishishi! They're very funny!" laughed Luffy, "So, where is it, your place?"

"Just at the west end of the village, below the woods. We are managing an inn just near the hot springs gushing out from the mountain. My people are known for their Onsen!" explained the beaver, with a good dose of pride in the tone of his voice.

The little group had started walking behind their guide who was opening the way towards the village and the aforementioned inn, while pursuing the conversation.

"Hot springs?" repeated Chopper, quite baffled, raising his eyes towards Fuu and Nami who were walking nearby him.

"It looks like pools, naturally heated by the high temperature of the surrounding stones… a bit…" described Fuu while speaking with gestures to describe the phenomenon, "well, a bit like open-air baths staying always hot… if you prefer…"

"Exactly, young lady, you know a lot about it!" admitted the beaver with an impressed look for Fuu.

_I can't really tell them that it's a classic in Japanese mangas, can I? _thought Fuu while repressing her comment.

"But the only difference is that our inn counts indoor baths, and not open-air ones." specified the beaver with a self-important expression, "We are collecting the naturally sulphurous waters springing from the rocks outside our establishment to supply our Onsen. It's a very high quality bath, very good for the epidermis!"

"Wow!" marvelled Nami, very enthusiast about the given description, "We haven't taken a good bath since Alabasta…"

"That sounds rather tempting… but it's not the point…" sighed Ace, before asking their guide, "Hey, Beaver-san, how long does it take for the Log Pose to lock on the next island? In how many days will we be able to leave Fimbul?"

"Normally, four or five days…" hesitated the beaver, seeming quite troubled by the question.

"Normally?" highlighted Ace, puzzled.

"That… that depends on the Queen…" mumbled the beaver while lowering his eyes.

_The Queen? _noticed Fuu, raising intuitively her head as her attention grew engrossed by the conversation between Ace and the beaver walking on her right.

"That depends? How come, I mean, we have never heard about an island where the time for recording the magnetic field was varying according to a human factor…?" insisted Nami, quite bewildered.

"Oh! We have reached the village!" cut the beaver, while showing the inhabitations along the main street with his little paw.

The village – or rather small city – in question was spreading itself right between two forests, midway between the coast and the tall black mountains occupying the centre of the island. The wooden houses of various sizes, resembling Nordic huts with their roves covered with snow and ice stalactites, were carefully ordered on the two sides of the main road.

Marco's team was – of course – already in the place, actively chatting with a… centaur.

_Centaur? In One Piece Universe? _thought Fuu with a slight frown, _I had never imagined I would see centaurs in this world… I mean, there a lot of extraordinary creatures on Grand Line, and Clow has always been telling me how funny and interesting it is, but still… how can I put it, it's like the style is different…_

Fuu discreetly glanced at her nakamas, who were walking towards Marco without pausing at all on its extraordinary interlocutor.

_Well, seems like it's just me… Centaurs seem normal… Well, MAYBE I should have read One Piece, after all, sigh… And if I do not want Clow to mock me afterwards, I'd better try and not look too astonished by what I'm going to see in this world, sigh…_

"Ah, you're finally there!" remarked Marco upon noticing their arrival, "We just learned that the Log Pose is taking a bit less than a week to record the next magnetic waves, and they don't have enough food supply for restocking the entire Fleet today: they need to go and collect it from all the other villages on this island… So it seems like we're going to spend some time here."

"We heard about it too." answered Ace, before glancing at the beaver accompanying them and adding: "And we've been invited to visit his inn: they've got wonderful baths, it seems."

"Of course, you would be welcome too!" added the beaver, smug and proud under Ace's compliment.

"Yeah, Marco, you're coming too, right? Pools with sulfu-thing water, that looks so cool!" exclaimed Luffy with star-shaped eyes.

_He's getting carried away, he's getting carried away… _thought the rest of the Mugiwaras with a resigned expression.

"Hum, why not…" answered Marco with a smile, "I'm just taking care of sending a message to the ships to keep them updated with the situation."

And after having sent a messenger to the coast, the two teams of pirates joined each other to follow the beaver towards his inn which was – one had to admit it – quite wonderful: larges rooms with walls in tree-trunks, finely worked yet authentic furniture, ice crystals hanging from the ceiling as decoration, and the whole set in a relaxing ambiance of pine fragrance.

"Wow…" marvelled all together the group of pirates during the visit, their expression ranging from twirling delight to sober smile.

"Since it is still early, I advise you to enjoy the hot springs until lunch." offered the beaver while leading them to the bathroom, "You can change in this room, and the baths are here."

And the beaver slid the wooden panel opening on the baths.

The floor was covered by large paving stones cut in lava-stone, and steam water was saturating the air. Inlaid in the ground were glowing two aquamarine jewels: the sulphur baths in question, glimmering of a blue-green milky colour.

"Wow, the water is opaque!" exclaimed Nami upon contemplating the pools, "What a beautiful colour!"

And while Nami was knocking Sanji out when the cook had started twirling around her saying she was even more beautiful, the beaver started explaining the composition and role of each bath.

"Here is the whirlpool bath," began he while showing the round pool on the right, and which was foaming of big milky-blue bubbles, before designating the widest pea-shaped second bath, on the left, which was surrounded lava-stones serving of benches, and where quiet waterfalls were flowing at each end, "And the second one is the resting bath."

Luffy, Usopp and Chopper had already starting jumping all over the place, and Nami had even needed to catch back Luffy by his collar to prevent him from entering the bathroom all dressed up to go and test the so tempting bubbles.

"The colour of the water is due to the quantity of sulphur present in the spring, and constitutes an excellent treatment of balneotherapy…" was presenting the beaver with an air nearly as proud as when Usopp was telling his usual tall stories – except that here the information given seemed way more trustworthy.

"Great!" exclaimed Luffy, Usopp and Chopper, overjoyed.

"A skin treatment? Wonderful…" smiled Nami, overjoyed too.

"Hum… well, that's delightful and all, but…" began Fuu, a bit ill-at-ease, "But where are…?"

"Where are the women's baths?" calmly asked Robin, finishing her nakama's sentence.

SHIN. A long… long silence followed the question of the archaeologist, and the beaver looked at her without really understanding the motive of her interrogation.

"Humans use different baths for males and females?" finally asked he, quite baffled.

CRASH. The totality of the pirates had collapsed in front of the blatant incomprehension of the non-human innkeeper.

"OF COURSE WE DOES!" yelled Nami while baring her teeth, "We're not going to bathe with perverts like them!"

"Indeed, indeed!" nodded Robin, Fuu, and the three girls part of Marco's exploration team.

So Chopper began explaining the details of the claim of the 'females' to the beaver, admitting from time to time that he himself didn't always understand it.

Zoro and Sanji were fighting once more – Zoro having called Sanji a hopeless idiot when the cook had declared that he would love to bath with his three goddesses – correction: six goddesses now that Marco's nakamas had joined them. Luffy and Usopp were still contemplating the unusual colour of the water while deliberating if they could discreetly enter the bath right now to test it, in Nami's back.

But the hot springs experience was for now on a standstill.

"Sigh, this bunch of idiots…" ranted Nami while taking her forehead into her hands.

She then looked at the glowing aquamarine baths and her lips tighten in an expression of envy difficulty repressed.

"I really wanted to try these baths…" sobbed she while looking with pitiful eyes in Chopper and the beaver's direction, who didn't seem to have found a solution to their problem yet.

"Hum, Nami… Don't worry! I'm sure that now that Chopper had explained the situation, we can find a solution…" tried to comfort her Fuu, not really knowing what to propose to her nakama who seemed so eager to dive in the hot springs, "I mean, in the worst scenario, we could still bathe at different times, or if we don't have time for that, they could share the baths between us and pull a curtain between them or something like that, so…"

"BRILLIANT!" suddenly accepted Nami, the beaver, Chopper and the rest of the girls with their thumbs up.

_Huh?_

**

* * *

A FEW SECONDS LATER**

No sooner said than done!

In less time than Fuu had needed to recover from her surprise, the beaver had called his employees to install a long curtain between the two baths – the entire process being executed at the speed of light – and they had planned that males will enter first and take the big resting bath before the female could enter and take the whirlpool bath – for it being smaller and the door of the changing room opening directly on it.

"HEY? Why?" sulked Luffy with a moody tone when he had finally managed to understand the plan, "I want to try the bubbles one too!"

BONG. Nami's fist had rung out on her captain's head, before she sent him packing – rather changing – a mere second later.

Then the six girls heard the guys disappearing behind the wooden panel, their voices getting farther as they were leaving the changing room – even if some comments like 'Wow, Ace, yours is bigger', 'What?', 'Ace, tell your brother not to compare our tattoos like that' could still be heard from easily identified voices.

And the girls finally entered the now empty changing room, starting preparing for the bath. They then saw a beaver employee bringing them a pile of long white fabrics.

"What is it?" asked Nami, puzzled by the texture of the linen.

"They're towels impregnated with plants essences." explained the female beaver, "When combining their proprieties with the bubbles of the bath, you skin will become way smoother and deeply nourished. It is a special service for females, hihihi."

"Impressive." admitted Robin when gazing at the towels smelling of wildflowers.

"Wow, it's soft and fluid as silk…" commented Fuu when taking the immaculate fabric in her hands to tie it around her chest.

And the six girls finally entered the baths with some excited giggles.

The opaque water was reaching the level of their hips, but the lava-stones installed at the bottom of the bath were made as a bench, so that they could immerse themselves to their shoulders when they were sitting.

And they finally heaved a deep moan of satisfaction when entering the milky bubbles.

"Paradise…" sighed of pleasure all the girls.

"Fuu, that's was great to advise them to draw a curtain between the two baths!" exclaimed one of Marco's nakamas – a russet-haired and tall pirate named Anne that Fuu knew a little after all her visits at the Yonkou's Fleet.

"Hum, definitely brilliant!" added a fair-haired girl who was part of the nurses on-board, and who had taken care of her in the past – even if Fuu couldn't remember it, of course, considering the state she had been in at that time, "If you had not, we couldn't have enjoyed these wonderful hot springs!"

_And us, we couldn't have enjoyed your wonderfully sexy silhouettes as shadow puppets on the curtain of the baths… _thought the pirates in the neighbouring men bath with an aroused air.

"Hey, Mugiwara, your nakamas have some damned awesome bodies!" commented one of WhiteBeard's pirate to Luffy.

"Hum?" tilted Luffy, momentarily stopping his little playful experiment with the blue-green water.

"We were saying you're bloody lucky to have such hot chicks as nakamas!" added another pirate with a coarse yuck.

"…" didn't answer Luffy, ignoring the comment and glaring at the pirate in question, before going back to sit next to his brother.

"What's wrong, Luffy? Did you gulp a mouthful of water or something?" teased Ace upon seeing the annoyed face of his little brother.

"No, not that… That's just… I don't like them speaking of her like that!" muttered Luffy with a dark tone, his mood getting darker at watching the pirates spying at the silhouettes behind the curtain.

**

* * *

MEANWHILE, IN THE WOMEN BATH**

_We can hear you perfectly, you bunch of jerks… _thought in unison the six girls.

"Well, they are not really mistaken, but…" mumbled Fuu while eyeing with envy the other girls, and more especially Nami and Robin, "… I guess that's just out of my league…"

_The nice body of a heroine of manga, what a dream! Sigh… Well, I should know it's just out of reach for someone real like me, so I shouldn't be sulking on it, but still… still a bit – a lot – jealous…_

"What are you talking about, Fuu?" laughed Anne, "I'm sure they were including you in the lot, when speaking about Mugiwara's nakamas!"

"Hum, on that one, I'm not sure which one is the most insulting: being included or excluded in the lot…" remarked Fuu with a shared expression.

"I think we should just take it as a fatality." maturely declared Robin.

"Exactly." answered Anne with some 'you-ll-get-used-to-it' expression.

_Oh my… _sighed Fuu with a drop of perplexity appearing on her temple at the sight of the two young women tolerating their 'status' with such philosophy.

"But in any case, don't worry: you're quite pretty and with nice body proportions!" comforted the blond girl, while starting to circle around Fuu to mentally measure her 'proportions'.

_We can hear the nurse speaking, hihihi… But somehow, that does not especially comfort me on the present topic, to learn that I am 'humanly' proportionated…_

"Hum, not that I would put your word to doubt, but…" hesitated Fuu while eyeing the high-level opponents she was being compared too: Nami and Robin.

"Oh, come on… Or course you're beautiful!" insisted the last girl from Marco's group, a short dark-haired girl, "You're rather tall, with long curly hair…"

_That's because you are shorter than me and your hair is cut short, too! But I would trade all of that for your thin waist and your long and slender legs, if I could, sigh…_

"And also," continued the short-haired girl with an inch of envy in her tone, "You have some very nice breast! That's not difficult to see through the drenched towel, you should at least be a 90C…"

The remark – a bit too well estimated to the taste of the girl in question – made instantly Fuu blush, and made the pirates in the neighbouring bath swallow some mouthful of water of surprise.

_Boobies… 90C, hum… _they started thinking with some dreamy depraved expressions.

"Grr… I understand what you were talking about!" muttered Ace to his brother with a dark glare for the perverts contemplating the curtains with lecherous expressions.

In the women bath, Marco's nakamas had taken the opportunity of seeing Fuu so embarrassed to gather around her with the intention of untying her towel so that they could confirm their estimation. But Fuu, deeply vexed, had sent an aquatic barrier of bubbles dismiss the three girls back to the other end of the bath, before readjusting her towel with a blushing expression.

_What the… Grr, what's with this mania in Japanese mangas to make girls jump on each other in the bathroom to compare their breast size? Seriously…_

"Fuu, I've always wondered…" began Robin, in an aside, upon contemplating the twirl of bubbles that was still maintaining the three girls out of reach, "Why does your power take this kind of shape? I you wished it, you could perfectly use the thunder like Enel, or the fire like Ace-san, or even stretch your body like Kaichou-san… You could wish anything you want, so how come your power never materializes as violent and destroying attacks?"

"Robin?" startled Fuu, completely panicking and glancing back to check if Nami or Marco's nakamas had heard the comment, but the first one was laughing at the latest who were still trying to break the water barrier apart, "How… I mean… you… know…?"

_How can she know about that? I didn't explain the Mugiwaras or anyone the details of my Devil Fruit… not even the little Robin whose memories could have remained in Robin… not even when I thought I was part of this world just like them… I never spoke about it, except with my brother, but no one was there when we discussed the use of my Hoshi Hoshi no Mi… So HOW?_

"Sorry…" laughed Robin when contemplating the perplexed face of her nakama, "I spied a little in your cabin…"

And the archaeologist swiftly brushed her ear with a mysterious yet conniving smile.

_She let her duplicated ear behind, tsk… And she dares confessing it as if it was nothing… No but really…_

"Hum, that's not something to do, you know…" sulked Fuu before finally considering in a deep sigh the question Robin had asked her, "And respecting to my power, well… I guess that comes from… my personality, maybe… If I think about it, I can copy and use any of the power you just described, for sure… But how to put it, spontaneously, what comes in mind, hum…"

_Spontaneously, since I'm NOT a fan of Shounen mangas, the only 'spells' coming naturally to my mind are 'spells' from Magical-Girls stories, or for the best, 'spells' from Heroic Fantasy videogames, like magician or priest spells… Tsk, a bit lousy, I confess: my brother is probably biting his fingers with shame for having given me an absolute power and seeing me using it like that… Well, or maybe he is happy to see that I am NOT using it for world domination and therefore stealing the spotlight to his heroes, I don't know yet, hihihi…_

_But one thing is sure respecting to my power, and I've realized it at fencing or any other sport: I'm really gifted for defence and dodging – to be honest, they're my only good points, tsk – but I have nearly no – if not zero – will of attack… I'm always ending up countering my opponents and focusing on supporting others… Hum, should I worry about that making me a supporting character in a manga…_

_Bygones, let's go back to the matter at stake… Hum, my Devil Fruit, huh… Well, I guess the use I make of it is indeed a good mirror of my personality, sigh… Ah, although when I crack up, I can be rather violent: Marines could testify about it, hihihi… Oh my, what am I laughing about? I shouldn't rejoice about it, grr… After all, Clow chew me hard-core for that, and I readily admit that violence is a no-go, grr…_

"Hum…" paused Robin, upon seeing Fuu completely lost in her own thoughts, "Your personality, then…"

"Hey Fuu!" suddenly called Nami who had come back to sit next to her nakamas, before something caught her attention on the back of her friend, "This… scar…"

Fuu snapped out of her thoughts and finally freed Marco's nakamas from her bubbles twirl. She looked at the worried expression of Nami and let her fingers run on her left shoulder-blade, where a translucent seven-braches-star-shaped scar – or rather long-rayed sun shaped – was spreading on her skin.

"That's the place where Admiral Kizaru had knocked a Kairoseki stone into my body…" explained Fuu with a resigned smile, still feeling an after-taste of blood between her lips upon remembering it.

"Well, they had told us, but… you could have erased this scar with your healing power, right?" asked Nami, her face picturing all the doubt and surprise she was feeling.

"I could have…" admitted Fuu before looking at Nami straight in her eyes with a determined expression, "But I wanted to keep it! To keep it to remind me never to let my garde down anymore…"

And Nami didn't add anything more, just silently approving the resolve of her friend while brushing her own tattoo under her fingers.

"Are you speaking about the scar I took care of on your shoulder-blade?" asked the blond girl while carefully approaching from Fuu to look at her shoulder, "Well, you're naturally healing quite fast, but of course it damaged your body a lot! Kairoseki is just a nightmare for Devil Fruit eaters… So even if you had managed to pull it out very quickly…"

"Ah, the famous stone that Ace dig out from you shoulder on the deck, right?" asked Anne with a rhetorical tone, "If I remember correctly, that was the moment you were surrounded by Marines, and we were all prisoners in a corner of the deck… You really surprised us, at that time!"

"Yep," confirmed the blond girl while crossing her arms at the remembrance and nodding to Anne's comment, "You should have seen of how many centimetres the jaws of everyone on-board had unhooked, I didn't think it was humanly possible…"

_I am wondering about that every day since I entered this universe you know… the limits of the 'humanly possible' in this world… _sighed Fuu with a resigned expression.

"But you know Fuu," pursued Anne with a teasing tone, "I changed my mind about you, since then!"

"Changed your mind about Fuu?" repeated Nami, quite puzzled.

"I mean, I've always thought she was the cute and innocent type of girl, so I wasn't expecting her to use that kind of… diversion…" giggled Anne while sending a conniving wink to Fuu, who instantly became crimson red, "Well, even if the Admiral had kind of hinted it to you, hihihi…"

"A diversion strategy?" highlighted Nami, now curious about it.

Fuu started staring at Anne with supplicating eyes and her hands crossed in front of her chest as a silent signal, but the russet-haired pirate chose not to take the hint, and went back to her conversation with Nami.

"Yes, a very good strategy…" laughed Anne, "Can you imagine that, in order to hide to the Marines the fact that Ace was digging out the Kairoseki stone from her shoulder-blade, Fuu k…"

"Waaaah!" screamed Fuu, blushing furiously of shame, while dashing with panicking eyes to pin her hands on Anne's mouth.

_Waah, waaahhh, WAAAAAAHHHHH! Quiet, just keep quiet! I didn't think about it, at the time… The Admiral's words were just mingling with my rage and the pain from the wound, and I really didn't think about it! That wasn't anything meaningful, I didn't even THINK about it, so don't bring it up again! Quiet! QUIET!_

But the russet-haired pirate easily dodged the gag with an amused look for Fuu, and seemed to start continuing her story. So Fuu panicked even more, and suddenly throw a big bubble of milky water on Anne's mouth. The enchanted bubble then glued to the lips of the pirate, preventing her from speaking, nuisance which made the victim of the 'spell' frown, before finally silently giggling upon seeing the beat red cheeks of the attacker.

_Humph! No kidding! No way I would let someone speak about such an embarrassing thing! And it's out of the question than anyone else learns about it, too!_

"What?" asked Nami with a curious smile, more and more interested in the topic that had managed to make Fuu blush that much.

"Nothing, nothing at all!" answered Fuu with a strong voice and forcing a laugh, "Just… a misunderstanding…"

"Yare yare…" giggled Robin with a conniving smile for Fuu, her memory bringing back to the surface some blurred images of Fuu and Ace during the Buster Call.

**

* * *

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CURTAIN**

In the men bath, sitting on the lava-stone bench, just right to Ace, Marco has started chuckling.

"She said it was a misunderstanding…" laughed he in a compassionate tone, while patting Ace's shoulder.

"Just shut up!" mumbled Ace, quite annoyed, while averting his eyes.

Meanwhile, in the women bath, Fuu had finally released Anne from her 'spell', but only after having threatened her with a thousand deathly glares not to resume the conversation on its last topic.

"Hum…" giggled the russet-haired pirate, hardly repressing a burst of laughter when seeing the troubled expression of Fuu.

"Why don't you want to talk about it?" finally asked the short-haired girl, really surprised by Fuu's reaction and thus not able to keep quiet about it anymore, even if she didn't dare being more precise about the 'it' in question, by fear of retaliation, "You're a couple, aren't you?"

Upon hearing the word 'couple', Fuu instantly became scarlet – and it wasn't because of the hot bath – while Nami was staring at her with an incredulous expression. Robin only smiled faintly, but a huge hubbub busted from the men bath.

"N… no… no, we are… we're not…" babbled Fuu, her cheeks burning her like never before, and she started gazing at Nami and Anne with some desperate expression, as if looking for some help.

In the men bath, Fuu's denial had calmed down the racket. Sanji and Zoro had let go of Ace, the other pirates were now discussing their own chances with the angel-winged girl – heaving some deep sighs of disillusion from times to others – and Marco, laughing on the sly as usual when it was about this topic, was trying to cheer Ace up between two chuckles.

**

* * *

BACK TO THE WOMEN BATH**

Nami suddenly jumped on Fuu, seizing her by her shoulders.

"Fuu, don't worry! You have my stalwart support!" exclaimed Nami, a strange light glowing in her eyes, "If you are an item, don't hesitate in claiming it out loud!"

_Nami? What has gotten into her?_

"Hum… Nami?" interrogated Fuu, rather puzzled by her nakama's reaction, and glancing at Robin for her help.

"Don't take it too much to heart, Fuu. I believe she is insisting just because she thinks it would be easier to create a second couple once there will already be one in the family…" whispered Robin with her usual sagacious smile, making Nami blush a little at the comment.

_A second…? In the 'family'…? HEY ? Nami and Luffy are not OFFICIALLY together? Why? Is it also because we modified the Story? No, wait a second… If I recall correctly, my brother is 100% supporting the LuNa scenario, but I'm quite sure Oda-Sensei has never written anything romantic – expressly romantic – between them… So, now that I not in my brother's fan-fiction anymore but in the real Story – hum, rather an Alternative Universe coming from the original Story – I guess it makes sense that they are not together…_

_Hum, but I felt like they were really close… So they're close in the original Story? Oh, what the hell! Who cares about what the Story should be! It's about love: number one in my little list of things to protect and support at all cost, just before friends and promises… So who cares about the rest? Nami seems to love Luffy… So I will help her, even if I don't know what I can do for that, tsk… Now that I think about it, if they are not together yet, I guess it must be difficult for Nami, considering how clueless Luffy can be, hum…_

"So you're not a couple?" resumed the conversation Anne.

_That's what I just thought… tsk… No, wait a minute, Anne is staring… at ME? What the…_

And Fuu blushed anew when remembering about WHOM the conversation was about, and about WHO was supposed to be the couple in question. But she just clenched her lips tight and averted her eyes, not wanting to fight on the topic against Anne – who seemed to be as talented as Robin to embarrass people.

"Seriously not?" wondered Anne while gazing at Fuu with disbelief, and taking her silence as an explicit answer, "Weird… That's really the first time I see Ace caring that much about a girl…"

_Huh? _unconsciously reacted Fuu, her eyes wandering back on Anne with curiosity.

"Well, that's true… Usually, he avoids 'associating' with girls he knows…" admitted the blond girl, before specifying with some regretful tone, "Although nearly every one of us has tried to…"

"Well, of course! Ace is quite popular in the Fleet: he commands the Second Division, he's tall, incredibly powerful, good-looking, all built up, and he's very polite, and smiling a lot too… He's so sexy!" lost herself the short-haired girl with an expression full of admiration and probably more.

Of course, in the men bath, everyone was teasing Ace unmercifully, chuckling hard at each element of the description given by their black-haired nakama.

Back in the women bath, Fuu was gazing at the girl who had just spoken – and who unavoidably reminded her of some giggling fan-girl, even if she couldn't really say that – with a speechless expression.

_Wow… Ace is that popular with girls? It's true he's handsome, I mean, it even surprised me the first time I met him, and he wasn't even at his best advantage on this scaffold… Quite surprised, I must confess, because there's definitely not plenty of – if not zero –Ikemen in One Piece, especially from my Shoujo-reader point of view… But I don't know why, I wasn't expecting him to so adulated…_

"I confirm…" added the blond girl with a sigh of resignation, "Honestly, he could have all the girls he'd wish for… well NEARLY all…"

And the pirate gazed at Fuu with an amused look and an unequivocal smile.

"But unfortunately, it looks like he's dodging all relations risking to become serious! The 'not interested' style, kind of…" sighed the fair-haired girl while remembering the behaviour of their Second Commandant of Fleet with the fair sex in general.

_Pardon?_

"It's hard to imagine a pirate not interested in women…" declared Robin with smile, while thinking: _Although… we also have one on-board: a very handsome man more interested in training than in women!_

"Yep, hard to believe, right?" laughed Anne, "WhiteBeard, Marco and the others often hauled him by force to spend the night in dubious taverns, in order to celebrate their victories and everything… but even if he let them drag him off there, it almost feels like it's a chore for him, hihihi…"

"How lucky of them, these tavern girls…" grumbled the short-haired girl with a sulking expression.

TILT. In the men bath, Ace had startled at the mention of his one-night stands, before nose-diving in the blue-green water, internally laying a curse on the gossipers who were thus displaying his private life.

_Oh… with tavern girls… Of… of course… It's customary for pirates, after all! So… it's normal… that Ace would… _thought Fuu, definitely ill-at-ease, her eyes unconsciously falling on the milky bubbles of the bath and giving her an expression of abandoned kitten.

"Ooh? What's with this sulking expression?" teased Anne upon seeing Fuu's face, "Jealousy?"

"Of… of course not!" immediately retorted Fuu, her cheeks starting to burn up, "It… that's normal for pirates to associate with tavern girls, is it not…?"

**

* * *

IN THE MEANTIME, IN THE MEN BATH**

Marco had approached from Ace with a compassionate look.

"Come on… Don't make such a long face…" sighed he upon seeing Ace's disappointed expression, "Don't tell me you were hoping to hide to our cute little Fuu your past of experimented playboy, hum…"

"What playboy?" answered Ace while grinding his teeth, "Just to remind you: that was YOU and the others who always sent girls in my room after having made me drink like a fish…"

And Ace sighed of helplessness while gazing at the curtain separating the two baths.

"Oh, but that wasn't OUR fault if these girls were fighting to be sent in your room…" mocked Marco with a contemptuous smile.

"Tsk…" screeched Ace, vexed.

"And if I remember correctly, you've refused to accompany us in this kind of taverns for several months, now… hum… since Marine Ford, to be more precise… We really wonder for what reason… or rather… for who, hum?" added Marco in a conniving whisper for Ace, who just averted his eyes without answering, hiding a beginning of blush in the shadow of his wet hair.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the curtain, the three girls part of Marco's team were also giggling while teasing one of their friends, pursuing their provocations with enthusiasm in order to see how many more degrees on the scale from pink to scarlet could climb up Fuu.

"That's true that nights in dubious taverns are a prerequisite for pirates!" was adding Anne with a playful smile.

"Yep, I don't think a pirate worth his reputation would make exception: a girl in each harbour, as goes the saying! All men are like that!" chimed in the blond girl while repressing a laugh.

"If a man is inexperienced, his crew won't respect him, for sure! Especially for a Commandant of division or a Captain!" completed the short-haired girl while nodding actively to corroborate her point.

_I know all of that! No need for rubbing salt on the wound… Huh, wound? Which wound? HEY? What am I talking about, come on? Ace's nightly affairs do not concern me! It does… not… concern… me… AAH! Why do I feel concerned…?_

"That's a lie!" suddenly shouted Nami, stopping the little round of provocations.

And everyone's look started converging towards Nami's face, which was bent to gaze at the water surface.

"All men are not like that!" added she when finally raising her eyes again, "The ones I know are not like that!"

_Nami?_

"Of course they are!" laughed the fair-haired pirate, "All men are really like that, and the Mugiwaras are no exception! Let's just take the example of your blond cook…"

"Sa… Sanji is special…" retorted Nami, starting to tremble under doubt, but standing her ground.

_Nami? Why is she… who… Luffy? Could she be worrying about Luffy?_

"Hum, not only your cook, I think…" pursued the short-haired girl, "Your green-haired swordsman also seems to have known girls before… and even if he behaves like a kid, your captain also must have…"

"THAT'S A LIE!" shouted Nami while standing up out of the water, "Lu… Luffy is not like that!"

"Hum, Nami, I think they're just saying that because…" began Fuu, a bit worried by the violent reaction of denial of her friend, but she was cut in the middle of her sentence by yells coming from the men bath.

"Mugiwara, you frequent dubious taverns, for real?" was asking a pirate while staring at Luffy with a face that could had had 'disbelief' written in bold on it.

"Of course! We're going there quite often, with Zoro and the others, it's part of a pirate life!" was answering Luffy with his usual grin.

"Oy, Luffy, they don't mean going and have a drink…" had wanted to speak Zoro, but Sanji was already on him to order him to confess if they had dared to meet with beautiful tavern girls without him.

The noise of their fight covered the rest of Luffy's explanation, and left Nami white as a sheet in the women bath.

"Hum, Nami…?" worried Fuu while standing up slowly, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder to softly call her back to her senses.

But suddenly, a spark of resolve switched on in Nami's eyes.

In a storm that lasted a mere 4 or 5 seconds, she put her feet on the lava-stone wall, dashing off the whirlpool bath despite Fuu who was trying to hold her back, and walked towards the men bath. She fiercely draw the curtain, under the dumbfounded expression of the pirates present on the other side, jumped in the resting bath and sprinted straight to her captain. And regardless of Fuu who was still trying to bring her back in the women bath by pulling her by her waist, she found her way until her target, pounced on her knees to be at his level, and caught him by his shoulders.

"Luffy! Is it true what you just said about the taverns?" asked Nami while looking straight in his eyes, her own expression torn between anger and despair.

SHIN. Speechless, Luffy was gazing at his navigator who had made irruption into the men bath, half-naked, to ask him something so unimportant.

"Nami, calm down, you'll ask him that later! Come back to the other bath, please!" asked Fuu, catching her nakama's arm, while glancing worriedly at the other pirates present in the second bath.

Sanji had collapsed in his own nosebleed, his eyes in twirling heart-shape at the sight of two of his goddesses. Zoro and Marco seemed puzzled, not knowing what to do with the two intruders. Ace's expression was indistinguishable. Chopper and Usopp were currently doing an apnea contest and had not realized the problem yet. But the rest of the pirates present – especially Marco's crewmates – were staring at them pervertedly.

And Fuu knew by experience that some of them were of the kind to bounce on anything that had two slender legs and boobs – _let's pass on someone as sexy as Nami _– never minding the fact that they had been sailing for several weeks now, and couldn't have visited the aforementioned 'taverns' recently.

"Nami, come on…" whispered Fuu, pulling a little stronger her friend's arm, but in vain.

But Nami was still staring at Luffy with an unwavering look.

"Nami…" finally spoke Luffy, "You should go back in the girls bath."

Nami's face instantly crumbled in front of the harsh gaze Luffy was giving her, but she shook her head and kept her position.

"Luffy, have you frequented dubious taverns with Zoro or Sanji?" repeated Nami, her voice starting to quiver.

"Nami, go back to the other bath!" got worked up Luffy.

"Answer me!" cried Nami, as if ready to burst into tears.

"Yeah, I already went to taverns with the others, at Whisky Peak, or Alabasta, or anywhere else…. I answered you, so now go back on the other side of the curtain!" ordered Luffy, really on the nerves.

But Nami couldn't hear him anymore; her mind had just gone blank…

_Nami… _thought Fuu with a compassionate look, but her attention was suddenly caught by some pirates elbowing each other and whispering in their back.

"Nami, we need to go back, hurry up!" begged Fuu while pulling harder on her nakama's arm.

But Nami violently shake off her arm, sending Fuu backward in a splash of milky water. Fuu coughed a bit and shook away some of her wet hair curls, and glanced at her friend.

_Grr… I know how heart-broken you must feel, but we'll have a talk about it later… I really don't like the light we can see in the eyes of some pirates here: they look just like a pack of wolves having caught sight of a tasty beefsteak… And I have no special interest for understanding the point of view of the aforementioned steak… Besides, I would rather not use my magic shield on allies!_

Heaving a deep sigh, Fuu somehow got back on her feet and emerged from the water to walk towards Nami again. But she nearly instantly remarked that something was off: the lecherous light in the pirates eyes had intensified and they were now viciously staring at Fuu's body-shape under her soaked white towel.

_Damn it… This towel is worse than translucent… I should have stayed under the cover of the whitish-blue water… Grr, I don't care anymore: the first of these damned perverts who comes near us will receive an electric spark!_

But Fuu saw with some uneasiness that the pirates had started moving, slowly and discreetly surrounding her, but also Nami, and eyeing the tie of their towels with definitely up-to-no-good expressions.

_What a jinx! Nami, time out… _thought Fuu while reaching her hand towards Nami, determined to get her back by force if needed.

But as if something had been triggered among the wolves – correction: the pirates – they suddenly stood up to dash towards the two intruders.

_Ugh…_

But at the very moment the perverts hold out their hands towards Fuu, a screen of flames furiously busted out between the girl and the pirates, and Fuu felt an arm wrapping itself around her waist to pull her out of reach from the lecherous wolves.

"Enjomo!" chimed in the voice of the one who had attracted her on to him.

_Wh… Ace?_

Ace had straightaway risen out of the water and seized Fuu with his left arm to pull her away from her attackers. He had pinned her against the lava-stone wall, using his own body as a shield between the girl and the perverted pirates. His chest entirely rose above the level of water, and he was back to his opponents.

His impressive built, adding up to the tattoo on his bare back, to the deathly glare in his eyes, and to the flames still burning up in his right hand, gradually daunted all the others to draw nearer.

"Ace…" whispered Fuu, both surprised and grateful, before realizing:

_B.. but, but… He's… Waaah, why is he… why the hell is he entirely NAKED? Wh… Why? Why didn't the little beaver give them towels too? WAAAH, he can't just press himself against me like that! Of course the water is opaque, but… but… that's SHAMEFUL at a lethal level! L… let go of me, baka!_

On their side, unaffected by the chaos around Fuu and Ace, Nami and Luffy were still facing each other, unflinching, Nami gazing at the milky water with a lifeless expression, and Luffy staring at Nami with an annoyed face.

"Nami, go back to the women bath!" repeated once more Luffy.

"Why? Why would it matter?" asked Nami in an absent tone, her voice still blank from what she had just learned.

"Everyone is looking at you." announced Luffy, dead serious.

"So what? I'll facture them a Paradise Punch later on…" answered Nami with a monochord tone, but despite mentioning money, her usual energy wasn't there.

"I don't want to!" declared Luffy, unflappable, "Go back to the other bath."

"I'll add it to you debt or take it from your share of future treasures…" said Nami, still out of it.

"I don't care about that! What I don't want to, it's seeing all these guys staring at you, so go back on the other side of the curtain!" insisted Luffy with an annoyed tone.

TILT. Upon hearing the comment, Nami's eyes rekindled.

"What… did you say?" asked she while raising her eyes to look straight at Luffy.

"I said I don't like guys staring at you with this kind of thoughts, so I don't want you to appear in that kind of outfit in front of them! Go back to the women bath… please!" concluded Luffy with a tone shared between the order and the supplication.

"Luffy!" smiled Nami, overjoyed, before pouncing on him and pressing her lips on her captain's.

Surprise merely lasted one second, and Luffy quickly hastened to run his fingers in the orange hair of his navigator to pull her on to him and answer her with a passionate kiss, under the flabbergasted faces of the spectators.

And finally, amidst the unhooked jaws and speechless expressions, an army of duplicated arms emerged from the perverted pirates and neutralized them while blinding them.

"Ocho Fleurs: Clutch." pronounced the one responsible of the painful counterattack on the pack of wolves, from the outskirts of the curtain separating the two baths.

"Robin!" exclaimed Fuu with a relieved smile.

"Fuu, I am really sorry for interrupting such an arousing situation…" began Robin with a very allusive smile for her interlocutor, smile which made Fuu and Ace glance at each other before blushing furiously, "But it is time to leave the hot springs: the innkeeper has called for lunch."

The archaeologist then looked at the two idiots still kissing with a passion and a lack of decency so peculiar to first attachments.

"Oh, and if could retrieve Kokkaishi-san on your way back…" added she with an amused smile.


	16. Story IV, Quest, Palace

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

…

Welcome to the Ice Palace

…

**FIMBUL, BEAVERS'S INN**

The Mugiwaras and Marco's team had now finished changing after bath time, and men and women met in the inn living room. Of course, awkwardness was palpable!

For starters, Ace and Fuu blushed and looked away when their eyes met each other.

In contrast, Luffy and Nami were happily holding hands while exchanging stupid grins, and one could nearly see little hearts fluttering around them in persistence of vision.

Robin and Zoro didn't seem unduly affected, but Sanji looked rather depressed, as if he had been pulled back into some deranging reality, small dark will-o'-the-wisps floating around him.

The three girls from Marco's team were still giggling, commenting the blush that had appeared on Fuu's blush when they had asked her – back in the changing room – why Ace was the only one not receiving an electric spark when he was holding her on to him.

Marco was also teasing Ace, asking him how the big brother was bearing with seeing his little brother outstripping him in love affairs, and Ace to retort that the innkeeper will have some roasted phoenix to add to his menu if he didn't shut up.

Still ignorant of the reason of the weird ambiance, Usopp and Chopper were happily commenting their first hot spring experience, while the rest of the troop – not ignorant, them – had chosen to pretend not to know anything, a bit shameful and embarrassed by what had happened, and also a bit scared by the remembrance of Robin's hands crushing their spins.

"Have you appreciated the hot springs?" diligently asked the beaver-innkeeper when coming to meet the pirates.

"Oh, I think everyone rather… enjoyed… it!" answered Marco with a playful smile.

"Do you now wish to have something to eat?" asked the innkeeper with an amiable smile, "Lunch is ready!"

"Food!" exclaimed Luffy, his mouth already starting salivating, the mention of food having made him leave his fluffy-pinky little lovely sphere.

And following Luffy's enthusiast injunction, the little group sat down around the table in the inn large and wooden dining room.

And in a very joyful ambiance, everyone forgot the previous episode, and enjoyed with delight the different dishes that the beaver waitresses were bringing them, toasting with some strong honey-flavoured ale.

Kampais were chiming across the dining room, and the beavers were soon enough invited to join the party by Luffy. On their side, Usopp and Chopper were asking the employees if they had some chopsticks and baskets – probably hoping to do their usual thing – Zoro was reloading his body with huge jars of honey alcohol, and Nami was clinking glasses with Luffy, overjoyed.

Well, smiles on everyone's faces…

"For our beaver friends: KAMPAI!" shouted Luffy while lifting his tankard, followed by the rest of the table.

"KAMPAI!" shouted the whole group of pirates in honour of their hosts.

And amidst the people gulping down their glasses, Robin noticed the moved expression of the innkeeper on her right and smiled to him.

"They're always like this…" explained she with a touched smile.

"Yes, this human is a good person!" admitted the beaver while gazing at Luffy with a moved grin, "It reminds me of the parties in honour of our Highness…"

"Your King?" said Robin.

"Yes… His fur shining with a thousand golden glows under the summer sun! It really is an image that every inhabitant of this island keeps in their heart…" recounted the beaver.

"So it's not always winter here?" asked Robin, surprised.

"Oh, no! Before the Que…" began the beaver before choking in the middle of his sentence and worriedly glancing at Robin, aware to have already said too much.

But Robin understood that the innkeeper didn't wish to pursue the topic and didn't press on. And a burst of laughter coming from the other side of the table diverted the conversation: Luffy had just fallen asleep between two Kampais, a big bubble of sleepiness inflating and deflating at his nostril.

"Don't fall asleep like that!" shouted the other pirates, their eyes bulging out of their sockets, their hands lifted straight to show their disapprobation.

"Zzz…" kept sleeping Luffy, despite Nami shacking him to wake him up.

"Heehee, what a handful, really…" began Ace, a tankard in his hand, before collapsing himself the cheek on the table and starting snoring.

"HEY! Not you too!" shouted the spectators with the same gawk expression.

_Oh my, what a family! _thought Fuu while repressing a little laugh to stare at the two sleeping brothers,_ Is it even possible in our world, such an extreme narcolepsy?_.

"Hey, Fuu!" called Marco while drawing near to her, "Do you want me to show you a fool-proof method to wake Ace up when he's doing that?"

Fuu stared at Marco's confident smile with a doubtful expression.

"An infallible method to wake him up? Really?" repeated Fuu, her head slightly bent on the side with a bewildered look, perfectly remembering that no one had managed to do that before, and that it was precisely the main problem of Ace's narcolepsy.

"Yeah!" answered Marco while pinching hard Ace's cheek, but without any reaction from the sleeper, "It looks rather impossible, but I'm ready to bet everything that it will work! It's the result of countless observations: look!"

And Marco bent over the sleeping face of Ace, moving his lips closer and closer to the sleeper's ear, and whispered in a tone so low that only Ace could hear it: _Ace, Roronoa had caught Fuu in his arms and is about to kiss her…_

BONG. Ace's head had risen so brutally that it had hit Marco's chin violently, and they were now both massaging their bruises while muttering swearwords.

Marco then observed Ace turning his head towards Zoro with fury animating his eyes, before realizing Fuu was near him and gazing at him with amazement. Ace thus stared at Marco with a deathly glare and his nakama crooked a smile, easily dodging Ace's counterattack to grin at Fuu and give her a thumb up to mark his victory.

_Wow… It really worked! _thought Fuu, admiring Marco's success, _I wonder what he could have told Ace… Hum, but they really should try and not do it too often, if they don't want to face myriads of Yaoi fans screaming 'Moe Moe' while immortalizing the scene of the murmur at his ear into some fluttering roses frame…_

SHIN. But silence suddenly fell when everyone noticed a little beaver employee trembling and shaking at the doorstep of the dining room.

The innkeeper stood up and went to see what was happening.

"Hum… A… a letter has come for you from the Palace…" muttered the beaver innkeeper when finally coming back to the pirates.

And the innkeeper held the aforementioned letter to the pirates, hardly repressing his little paws from trembling. Marco, Ace and Zoro looked at each other with a puzzled look, and glanced back at Luffy, who was still fluttering in a pinky bubble with Nami. The three guys heaved a deep sigh and Ace finally took the letter.

"Thank you very much, Beaver-san!" smiled politely WhiteBeard's Second Commander, and the innkeeper bowed slightly before slipping away at high speed.

Ace unsealed the letter and unfolded it, and Marco, Zoro, Robin and Fuu draw closer to read it.

In short, amidst plenty of polite formulas, the Ice Queen was inviting them to come and dine with her the very same evening, and will send them an escort to take them to the Palace.

_A Queen… not a King? _thought Robin when remembering her conversation with the beaver innkeeper.

"An escort? Without even waiting for our answer?" screeched Zoro with a frowning expression.

"That is for sure a very polite way of saying she won't admit us to refuse her invitation." answered Robin with a weary sigh.

"It's rather weird for a Queen to invite pirates to dine at her Palace…" commented Marco while scratching his head.

"And rather suspicious that citizens tremble of fear when they receive a letter from their sovereign…" added Ace while glancing at the inn staff who had hidden behind the door, not daring to step in anymore.

"You think that's related with the Log Pose?" hesitated Fuu, her hand on her chin, "Do you remember what the beaver said about the time we'll need to spend on the island: that it depended on the Queen! But Nami said magnetic waves can't depend on human will…"

"So it's likely that the time needed to leave does not relate to the Log Pose update but rather to the whim of the Queen…" concluded Ace, taking the remark seriously.

"You mean… as if she was detaining travellers in her Palace and only let them go when she desire so?" tried Robin, rummaging her memories to find some information about Fimbul, some references, some gossips, but in vain.

"We never know, let's not let our garde down!" declared Zoro with a suspicious glare for the royal crest on the letter.

"Well, it would be wisest to just refuse the offer." proposed Marco while crossing his arms, "I mean, we're pirates and all, not the kind of person you can just give orders to!"

Fuu glanced back at the beavers at the doorstep and saw them getting paler and paler under their furs at the mention of refusing the Queen's invitation.

"I'm afraid it's not just about us anymore…" whispered she, making the others similarly concerned about their hosts, and about what would happen if the escort didn't find the pirates upon coming at the inn this evening.

"In any case…" cut Robin while seizing the letter in Ace's arms, "We need to explain the situation to our Senchou…"

The five interlocutors thus turned back towards Luffy, Nami and the others – their captain still in lovey-dovey mode, as long as Luffy could act lovey-dovey – and heaved another deep sigh.

"Okay! I'll take care of it!" mumbled Zoro, snatching the letter in Robin's hands to walk towards their nakamas.

The swordsman rounded up the rest of the Mugiwaras and presented them the letter, the main topic of it, and their doubts about the Queen's intentions, but the audience seemed to have stopped mid-way his explanation.

"Diner?" was already salivating Luffy, "Of course we're going!"

_We just finished eating, Luffy… _thought Fuu, a big drop of weariness appearing on her temple.

"The Queen must be rich! I'm sure she doesn't need all of her treasures…" giggled Nami, her eyes in Berry-shape and some sly fox ears appearing on her head.

_Yare yare… _sighed Robin, already used to this kind of reaction.

"A beautiful Queen personally inviting us? Oh, my lovely Queen…" was already fantasizing Sanji, the piece of news having made him recover from his depression.

BAM. Ace had slapped his own forehead with his hand in front of such a blatant lack of perspicacity from the cook, who was losing all of his sagacity as long as a woman was involved.

"A Palace? GREAT!" exclaimed Chopper and Usopp with star-shaped eyes, before beginning imagining stories about it and growing even more engrossed by them.

TILT. A vein dangerously started bulging on Zoro's forehead.

"They didn't follow a thing…" mumbled the swordsman while clenching his teeth of pique, and resuming his explanation once again: "Listen, it's possible that the Queen is…"

"Sometimes, I feel like there are only few sensible people in Mugiwara's crew…" confessed Marco when pointing at the little comical troop with his finger.

"Probably… But that is also what makes travelling with them so interesting!" admitted Robin with a faint smile.

"I agree for the 'interesting' part, but… We should maybe go and help Zoro out of it before he cracks up…" put forward Fuu when pointing out at the numerous veins that had appeared on the swordsman's temples at each of his vain attempts to explain the implied meaning of the Queen's letter to Luffy.

"No, he'll manage it alone!" retorted Ace with a sly tone, crossing his arms in front of his chest and flatly ignoring the request.

_Tsk… _sulked Fuu upon hearing his answer, _What's with this? I don't know why, but Ace seems to dislike Zoro… Why? I mean, Ace is not the kind of person to dislike someone on a whim, so… Oh, or could it be because…?_

"Ace," began Fuu while rising her eyes to look straight at WhiteBeard's Second Commander, "Respecting to Zoro, could it be that you are… jealous?"

CRASH. Ace chocked in his own stupefaction and blushed furiously in answer to the question.

He averted his eyes before finally bringing them back on the determined face of Fuu, while Marco was whistling joyfully, quite amused by the unexpected turn of events.

"Y… Wh… why would… Where is that coming from?" finally retorted Ace, deeply embarrassed.

"Well…" paused Fuu, thinking back to find memories supporting her supposition, "Up until now, I thought you weren't the type to compete for someone affection, but…"

_Waaaaaahhh! Why is she so perceptive, all of a sudden? _panicked Ace, instinctively looking away, definitely ill-at-ease, _She's always been very dense every time I'm teasing her on this topic… She never noticed a thing, and I KNOW it wasn't just pretending not to notice…_

_Even if she always blushes in answer, she thinks I'm just provoking her… So if she has understood now… if she has guessed… how come she can speak about it without blushing at all? How come she talks about it in front of everyone as if it was nothing? It's… is it nothing for her? _thought he with a faint bitter taste spreading in his mouth.

"But," pursued Fuu while staring at Ace with a moody sulking expression, "I didn't think you would have a brother complex!"

CRASH. Ace – and Marco – had collapsed on the floor, and Robin was hardly repressing a laugh.

"You know, even if Zoro is Luffy's first crewmate, and even if he is always watching over your little brother and trying to take him out of the mess Luffy usually puts himself into, I'm sure that, for Luffy, his only big brother is you, Ace! So you don't need to compete on this point and try and show to everyone that you're more dependable than Zoro!" kept on Fuu while glancing in turn at Zoro, Luffy, then Ace, "Ace, are you at least listening to me?"

"Yeah yeah, I heard you…" mumbled Ace while getting back on his feet, knocking out a still-laughing-Marco with a backward punch.

_Tsk… _thought Ace while digging back his hat on his head, _Should I clarify the situation or consider myself happy that she is THAT dense? Really, this girl is just too much! Well… but then, I guess that's because she is like this that I l… her…_

Ace smiled faintly and bent over Fuu to murmur something in her ear, but sudden hits knocked on the inn's door prevented him from doing so.

"Upon order of the Queen Jadis, we have come to escort the travellers!" raised the icy metallic voice of two royal guards, "Will you kindly step out."

"Hum, they're already there? We're not even in the middle of the afternoon… Seems like our Queen doesn't wish to let us the chance to refuse her invitation…" noticed Marco, before turning back to his team and give them his instructions: to stay there and warn the ships if we are not back tonight.

"You're coming with us?" asked Ace with a slightly surprised tone.

"Well, I can accompany a bunch of fools, from times to others…" joked Marco with an amused glance for the Mugiwaras.

"Yosh, let's go!" exclaimed Luffy with an overjoyed expression, already quite hyped about the little trip to the Palace.

**

* * *

FIMBUL, BLACK MOUNTAINS**

Less than an hour later, the little group composed of the Mugiwaras, Fuu, Ace and Marco had reached the imposing Palace of the Queen of Fimbul.

Hanging on the vertical side of the black rocks, the immense structure of chiselled ice looked like a silver cathedral. A bottom-less abyss separated the isolated mountain recess where had been built the Palace from the rest of the snowy mountain, and the only way over it was the drawbridge of translucent bluish ice that they crossed under the 'invitation' of the royal guards.

"WOW!" exclaimed Luffy, his mouth wide open, when reaching the colossal doors of the Ice Palace, "GREAT!"

Even without being Luffy – or Usopp or Chopper – one had to admit that the Palace of the Queen was impressive: the whole building was glowing with greatness, magnified by the eerie light that seemed to emanate from the ice.

"So… beautiful!" exclaimed Nami and Fuu in unison.

_Though not really heart-warming… _added Fuu for herself, _And why do I have this feeling of déjà-vu? I don't remember having read something looking like that in One Piece already, hum…_

The two royal guards – which resembled heavy ice plate armours devoid of life – put their hands on the two immense parts of the double door, and let the guests of the Queen in.

Still impressed by the surrounding setting, the pirates walked along the gigantic and prodigiously high-ceiling entrance hall, and followed the guards across a maze of corridors to reach the Royal Courtroom.

"What's the matter?" asked Ace upon gazing at Fuu's sullen face.

"Oh, hum… Nothing important, just…" began Fuu in a whisper, _Just a very persistent impression of déjà-vu, but I can't say that, can I… _"Just that it's not very warm, this ambiance: even the furniture is made of ice…"

"Hum… Do you want me to warm you up?" teased Ace while crooking a smile.

"Baka…" sighed Fuu, who had started to get used to his provocations, but still made a sidestep while trying to repress a blush.

"The Queen Jadis!" chanted the icy voice of the guards, when introducing the little troop to the Queen.

"Be welcome!" announced the Queen sitting on an ice throne at the centre of the Royal Courtroom.

… _KIREII! _thought Nami and Fuu at the same time, while Sanji was fainting of dazed happiness at the same thought.

The Queen Jadis had skin the colour of the snow, eyes the colour of pale sapphires, long white gold hair elegantly streaming on delicate shoulders adorned by brooches which held a heavy cape of white fur around her. Her feet-length antique dress the colour of blue silver was gracefully glittering when she stretched her arm in a welcoming gesture.

_Wow… Wooooooowwww! Kireii! She really looks like a queen as we represent them in History books or story Tales… It even looks a bit off for this world… _muttered Fuu while contemplating the beautiful Queen.

Everyone introduced themselves: Ace with his most polite bow – as usual – Marco with very respectful formulas, Sanji with plenty of compliments – as expected – Zoro with a groan when Robin introduced him at the same time as herself – knowing the swordsman won't take the pain to do it himself – Usopp and Chopper with impressive lies and easy believer – as usual – Luffy with his most my-pace tone – as usual too – and Fuu surprising everyone with a gracious curtsey.

_It… it looked weird? Oh my, don't tell me you don't curtsey in front of Royalty in this world? Did it look that strange?_

"I am delighted to see you have accepted my invitation." finally softly declaimed the Queen with a charming smile that liquefied Sanji and made Zoro glare at her even more suspiciously, "Dinner will be served in several hours. Although I can not unfortunately keep company with you until then, my servants have prepared comfortable apartments for you, as well as adequate garments for tonight… Please consider yourselves the precious guests of this Ice Palace."

And with a slight head bow from the Queen, the guards lead the way out of the Royal Courtroom to the royal apartments, leaving plenty of time to everyone to comment the encounter.

Luffy was still exclaiming 'Great!' with Usopp and Chopper at each new room they were crossing. Nami was now obliged to drag on the floor a Sanji who had deflated of happiness and was drooling on the ground, with hearts twirling around his head. Zoro and Robin were discussing with low voice their first impressions on the Queen. Marco was elbowing Ace while asking him how much he had liked the Queen, discreetly eyeing Fuu's expression to his innuendo and hoping to detect jealousy on her face. But Fuu wasn't really paying attention to his provocation, distracted by what was displaying beyond the stained glass windows made of ice panels.

She suddenly froze and stared at the scenery stretching under their field of vision.

"I beg your pardon, what part of the Palace can we see from this window?" asked she to the guard without averting her eyes from the snowy silhouettes in tilt-up beyond the icy glass.

"This section is actually the private garden of our Highness the Queen." answered the metallic voice of the lifeless armour.

"Hum…" muttered Fuu, troubled, still gazing at the ice statues she could now distinguish in the snowy garden.

The guards then unlocked the doors opening on the wide suite that the Queen had made prepared for them. Immense four-poster beds, wardrobe filled with evening goats and tuxedos, chiselled folding screens, eerie white fur sofas… Everything was glowing from the same bluish ice, and Fuu couldn't help shivering despite the beauty of the setting.

The guards let the guests in and left, the sound of their metallic feet on the frosty ice floor quieting down.

"So, what did you think?" began Zoro, his eyes still on alert.

"Nothing disturbing… for now…" sighed Marco while shrugging his shoulders.

"I didn't feel anything strange…" agreed Robin with a perplexed expression.

"This Queen seems a bit too much used to have everyone obeying her, but I didn't see anything dangerous…" added Ace while scratching his neck.

"Hum, I don't know why, but… I feel like something is amiss…" muttered Fuu, as if speaking to herself.

Everyone's eyes converged towards her.

"Your intuition?" asked Zoro, whose instinct was also telling him not to let his garde down.

"Or something you know… but we ignore…" added Robin with a gaze seeming to pierce through Fuu's secrets.

"Hum… Not to that extent, Robin…" answered Fuu with a drop of trouble appearing on her temple.

_Until what point has Robin spied on the conversation between my brother and me? Hum, at that time, we had mainly spoken about my Hoshi Hoshi no Mi, and also about the temporal paradoxes… But I don't think she could have learned that we are not from this world; after all, there is no need for us to remind each other about a fact we are both perfectly aware of, already…_

Fuu glanced at her nakamas: Luffy was joyfully punching into the ice beds pillows, laughing with star-shaped eyes when seeing them instantly reforming themselves after the hit; Usopp and Chopper were stretching the covers, wondering how it could be so warm and soft when it looked like snow, and ended up playing ghosts with them on their heads; Nami was already comparing the antique style pleated dresses hang up in the wardrobes, and Sanji was commenting with admiration how each outfit would look _marvellous _on his dear _Nami-swan_.

In short, nothing out of the ordinary…

"I don't even know myself why, but this place is making me shudder… And it's not only because of the cold…" admitted Fuu while walking towards the ice window to gaze at the ice garden displaying beyond the stained glass.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, BANQUET ROOM, SEVERAL HOURS LATER**

"Would you please!" invited Queen Jadis with an amiable gesture, from where she was sitting at one end of a long table of translucent ice.

The pirates were still at the doorstep, all of them dressed to the ninth in the sumptuous garments the Queen had asked her servants to prepare for them. Firstly suspicious about the offer – or too frozen with cold to consider changing clothes – the ten pirates had finally been convinced by the eerie softness of the outfits, by their stunning whiteness, and above all by the fact that they were exceptionally warm for so thin a fabric.

Nami, Robin and Fuu were now wearing feet-length white pleated dresses, which were making them resemble Grecian statues, and only their jewel belts were adorned by gems of different colours: red-orange for Nami, night-blue for Robin, and iridescent-white for Fuu.

Sanji and Marco had put on with earnest enthusiasm their tuxedos white and cream, going as far as smartly folding a silk pocket square to match their cummerbunds.

Ace had also quickly changed: officially saying that he was used to this kind of get-up since he had infiltrated a Marine base and dressed up as an officer there, unofficially after seeing Fuu warmly complimenting Marco and Sanji, and telling them with a radiant smile that they looked _Kakkoi_.

Zoro had of course refused categorically to submit to the process, but had changed his mind – deeply vexed – when Robin had mentioned that denoting at the dinner would only make him look suspicious, and that if he wanted to observe the Queen, it would be more efficient to go unnoticed.

The three girls had then searched for an outfit matching the plush size of Chopper – this form being decidedly too cute for Nami and Fuu to agree on letting Chopper grow – and they had finally found some shirts, vest and pants in a wardrobe full of children-size clothes.

On his side, Usopp had associated several pieces of garments that the tailors should have definitely not made to wear them all together, and the result was kind of lacking, but that wasn't the main problem.

The main problem had been Luffy, who had decided to wear a sleeveless vest without shirt under it, and had rolled the ends of his tuxedo pants until the knees: the result being the image of his usual outfit, but white. Nami had of course tried to make him wear something formal – probably also hoping to show off her really smart-looking new boyfriend – but Luffy had ranted that the clothes smelled weird and that it wasn't _comfy _at all to eat and run around, and that it wasn't that important. Fuu had also gave up on it, and Nami had finally heaved a deep sigh and sulked in her corner, before finally remembering the jewel box on the dressing table and disappear behind the folding screen.

So thus was the line-up of the ten pirates when they entered the banquet hall.

"Please, do be sited." graciously proposed Queen Jadis, her servants pulling the chairs behind each of her guests.

"Wow!" marvelled Luffy, salivating with impatience at the sight of all the dishes presented on the table, "Itadakimasu!"

And Luffy's shout started the dinner, his elastic arms stretching in all directions to grab some food and bring it back to his mouth at full speed.

BONG. Nami's fist had rung on her right neighbour's head, leaving a bump around a filled elastic mouth, under the world-weary expression of everyone else.

"Behave properly!" ranted she before smiling an apologetic to the Queen.

"Oh, please, do not concern yourself and enjoy this dinner to its fullest." smiled Queen Jadis, seemingly not bothered by the lack of etiquette of the Mugiwaras.

And dinner went amidst bursts of laughter and the chiming of empty plates. From times to others, Zoro and the others were eyeing the Queen, but nothing looked suspicious.

Queen Jadis even readily made a demonstration of her own power when frosting the cups of hydromel a waiter had brought, before serving them to her guests, the entire process with a charming smile from the Queen, star-shaped eyes from Luffy, Chopper and Usopp, and a slight admiring whistle from Marco and Ace.

"So you have the power of a Devil Fruit, your Highness?" inquired Marco.

"A Fruit of Ice? Well, Aokiji has already a Logia of Ice, but why not…" remarked Ace, quite perplexed.

"My guests often highlight it, but my power is not coming from what you call an Akuma no Mi." graciously explained the Queen.

"Oh, so you often have guests dining here?" asked Usopp between two mouthfuls, but without waiting for the answer because Luffy had stolen some meat in his plate and he started fighting with his captain over it.

"I kind of understood that the inhabitants of this island are all animal," began Robin with a casual tone, but still looking straight into the Queen's eyes, "Could it be that you invited us because we are humans?"

Queen Jadis slightly startled at the question, but quickly recovered her countenance.

"Certainly." finally answered the Queen with a beautiful smile, "I am always particularly glad to welcome Daughters of Eve and Sons of Adam in this Palace."

SHRRR. Fuu nearly coughed back the sip of hydromel – cut with plenty of water – she was drinking, and Zoro softly pat her back to help her breathe, a bit worried, before asking if he should call Chopper over.

But Ace pulled Fuu by her arm to bring her away from the swordsman's hands, and sparks started bursting forth between them, silently, right above Fuu's head, even if she wasn't paying attention at all.

_Daughters of Eve? Impossible! I know where I have heard this idiom before, but… it's not possible… _thought she while recovering her breathe.

"Sons of Adam?" had paused Luffy, bending his head on the side in a puzzled expression, his mouth full of food.

"It's coming from an ancient legend." explained Robin with a faint smile for their captain, "The story tells that the first human man on this earth was called Adam, and the first human woman Eve. That legend is not commonly known but it would indeed make every one of us Children of Adam and Eve."

"No, that's wrong." refuted Luffy while turning his head towards the Queen, "My father is called Dragon!"

"Yeah, and mine is called Yasopp, you know…" added Usopp, confused too and scratching his head.

"And for me?" asked Chopper, full of hope to join the conversation.

"We said humans…" sighed Zoro.

"The only one I would ever consider my father is WhiteBeard!" claimed Ace with a determined light in his eyes.

"Not true, Ace!" sulked Luffy, crossing his arms, "Your father, it's Gold Roger!"

"WHAT?" shouted in unison the rest of the Mugiwaras, their jaws more or less unhooked and their eyes bulging more or less from their sockets.

_They didn't read the newspaper at all, these past months, or something? _wondered Fuu with a drop of weariness at her temple, while gazing at the Mugiwaras looking at Ace in disbelief.

"Ah, but it was supposed to be a secret!" suddenly remembered Luffy while massaging his chin.

"Hum, Luffy… Sengoku announced it to all the media of the Five Seas at Marine Ford, so I don't think you can consider it a secret anymore…" sighed Fuu, shared between laughter in front of Luffy's expression and anger at the remembrance of the way Sengoku had treated Ace on this particular topic.

"Wow, your pops is really Gold Roger?" asked Sanji to Ace while taking a drag at his cigarette.

Ace averted his eyes and slightly nodded, before focusing on his plate with a sulking and annoyed expression.

"Ace doesn't like to talk about it…" whispered Marco at Sanji.

"Hum…" agreed Sanji, deciding not to insist on the topic more than that.

But the rest of the table didn't seem so eager to drop the subject.

"Wow, Luffy, your Niisan is someone important!" whistled Usopp with an amazed expression.

"To imagine that we have brought together on the same ship the four people the World Government is wishing to see the most dead…" faintly smiled Robin with a glance for Luffy, Ace and Fuu.

"Even so, I thought the Marines had hunted the Five Seas for potential children of the Pirate King. And I remember they arrested a lot of women, back then, right after Gold Roger execution…" remembered Zoro with a baffled expression.

Fuu saw Ace clench his fists until they turn white around his fork and knife.

She gazed at Ace's face and saw the pain of remembering what his mother had done to bring him to life and protect him from the Marines showing on his features.

Her own face crumbled at the sight, and she felt her lips unconsciously starting trembling, muttering, searching for anything to force the conversation towards some other topic, even if she needed to seem rude for that.

"Y… your Highness!" interjected Fuu with a loud voice, forcing a smile on her lips and turning her head at the Queen, "Your Kingdom is really incredible! It really surprised me to see such wonderful creatures living here… I mean, when you invited us, I had even imagined that the sovereign of an animal country would be of the animal kind too… So surprising… How long have you been the Queen of Fimbul?"

SHIN. At these words, Queen Jadis' face hardened suddenly, and a frosty draught enveloped the table, instantly bringing a heavy silence.

It merely lasted a fraction of second, but Zoro's eyes narrowed and Fuu inwardly shuddered in front of the brief steal and cruel expression that had just showed Queen Jadis, so brief that it had last the span of an illusion.

"Since winter is blowing on this island…" finally whispered Jadis with an ambiguous smile for her interlocutor.

Fuu forced a smile back on her lips before focusing on her plate, leaving to Sanji the role of pursuing the conversation with heart-shaped eyes and myriads of compliments about how the Queen was way more beautiful than he had expected and etc.

On the other side of the table, Robin had also noticed that the answers and the reactions of the Queen didn't match what the beaver innkeeper had told her about their King. She glanced at Fuu with a very perceptive look, and the hazelnut-haired girl answered by a very preoccupied expression, before diving back in her thoughts.

_Really… There's really something off with this island… This feeling of déjà-vu, already seen, already heard, these shivers… But the incapacity of remembering why and where it is coming from, tsk! The others also feel that something is wrong so it's not only an impression: this Queen is definitely not someone to take lightly… Her aura just now proved it, even if it was so fleeting… Ugh! I feel like I should know who she is… to know that she is not who she is supposed to be, but it is so blur… And if it is coming from my memories from the real world, I can't just expose my theory to everyone as if it was nothing…_

"Something wrong?" asked Ace while bending towards Fuu, worried of seeing her usual smiling face grey with concern and her barely touching her dish.

"No… nothing special… I think…" hesitated Fuu, trying to comfort her neighbour with a little smile.

"Oh, I see… And by the way… Thanks…" whispered Ace while averting slightly his eyes.

Fuu raised her eyebrows, quite puzzled.

"For cutting into the conversation, just before…" specified Ace, a bit embarrassed.

Fuu blinked a couple of time, surprised by such a thank you, and finally couldn't help smiling tenderly, while the servants were beginning to clear away the table to serve some refreshments.

After the waiters had finally managed to take away the piles of empty plates – especially the ones emptied by Luffy, Ace having been cut in the middle of his usual feast by some bitter memories and therefore having not competed with his brother on this aspect – tea was brought in, as well as a big chiselled silver box of sweets.

"I hope you will enjoy these Turkish Delights." said the Queen in a charming smile while opening the refined container filled with pink and sugary confectionaries.

_Tu… Turkish Delights… NO! s_creamed internally Fuu.

The veil on her memory had been blown away, and all the paradoxes and discrepancies she had noticed since she had landed on this island started piling up, slowly completing the puzzle.

_I need to warn them… _thought she, panicking at the sight of the sweets being handed over to her nakamas, _I need to tell them… call them… but without the Queen noticing… how? HOW? Ah… but of course…_

"DON'T TOUCH THESE TURKISH DELIGHTS!" ordered Fuu through a telepathic call.

BAM. All the other pirates had let their hands fall back on the table, and the silver box remained untouched, while the guests were staring at their nakama in disbelief, wondering if they had dreamt the voice in their mind telling them not to touch them.

"I'll explain you later on, but don't eat these sweets…" repeated Fuu, a bit calmer, still by telepathy, before adding for her captain who was staring at her with puppy eyes: "And I'm dead serious!"

"Is something the matter?" finally asked the Queen, stunned to see everyone spurning on the confectionaries.

"Our thanks, your Highness, but our doctor on-board is always advising us to avoid sweets… I am afraid we must pass on your amiable offer." answered Fuu with a settled look, while standing up from her chair to look straight in Queen Jadis' eyes.

"Oh, I see…" smiled the Queen, astonished to see someone challenging her with a simple stare, while thinking: _Does this Daughter of Eve noticed the enchantment I put on the Turkish Delights? Her energy does not seem ordinary, indeed …_

The Queen and Fuu stared at each other for a few seconds, with apparent smiles but raging thoughts. Robin noticed that time had come to make their exit, and rose too.

"Your Highness, I am afraid we have already by too far abused of your hospitality." announced the archaeologist, "We are now going to return to our inn."

Queen Jadis' face froze a second, and she finally smiled back at Robin before answering.

"Oh, please, do not be uneasy about imposing on my hospitality. As I already told you, you are the precious guests of this Ice Palace." graciously announced the Queen, before adding on a tone that wouldn't endure any refusal: "The mountain can be dangerous at night, and we always draw back the bridge at sunset. My servants will lead you to your apartments, you should return to the village tomorrow."

_Humph… She had it all planned… _thought Fuu while silently clenching her teeth.

_It seems like the Queen had noticed we are suspecting her… _internally sighed Robin.

"I wish you a good and peaceful night." finally added Queen Jadis upon rising from her chair and taking leave, dedicating a friendly smile to the pirates, and a challenging stare to the two Daughters of Eve opposing her.

"Likewise, your Highness." answered Fuu while sustaining her stare.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, GUESTS' SUITE**

The door of the apartment closed on the two royal guards, letting the pirates alone.

"FUU!" shouted Luffy while pouncing on her, really on the nerves, "What the…?"

"These Turkish Delights were enchanted, Luffy…" managed to articulate Fuu amidst Luffy's shouts, "They were filled with the Queen's magic so that we would fall under her control when eaten…"

"WHAT?" exclaimed all the others with a range of disbelieving expressions.

"No reason! They looked so good, these Tou-ish-something!" sulked Luffy while crossing his arms with a sulking and longing expression.

BONG. Nami's fist rang on her captain's head.

"Stupid!" cried she with a nerve showing on her temple, "You don't understand!"

"Luffy! These stuffs would have controlled you like the colour power that this Baroque Works girl was painting on Little Garden… You really want to go through this again?" explained Zoro, quieting his captain under the remark.

SHIN. A little silence fell on the group of pirates.

"Fuu," began Marco, his expression a mixture of poise yet doubt, "It's not that I distrust you, but… how did you know?"

_Oh my… The embarrassing question popping out sooner that I would have loved too… _inwardly sighed Fuu while rummaging her mind to find a plausible answer, _Let's see…_

"Well… The power of the Queen is not from a Devil Fruit, but it somehow resembles my 'spells', so…" tried she while scratching her cheek, "And more than anything, it's because I remembered…"

"You remembered what?" asked Chopper, raising his puzzled little head toward his nakama.

"I remembered… the History of this Island, the reputation of the Queen… I remembered what kind of person she is…" added Fuu with a darker tone.

"And can you tell us more about it? I mean, without all the… unnecessary… details, of course!" added Robin with a conniving smile for Fuu on the last part of her sentence.

_Thanks Robin… _thought Fuu with a relieved expression, while pausing to determine which part of her explanation was needed and which one she should definitely not reveal.

"Queen Jadis is in reality the White Witch: she is not the legitimate sovereign of this island." began Fuu, her discourse bringing everyone's focus on her, even Luffy's and Usopp's, "She stole this throne, and now fears that the fantastic creatures we have met today would come and claim it back. And because of an ancient prophecy, she is particularly fearful of humans – us, who she calls Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve – because it was said that the real King would take his throne back with their help."

"Are you sure about that, Fuu-chan?" asked Sanji with a more serious tone, the fact of his beautiful Queen being a malevolent witch having dusted away a huge part of his admiration for her.

_I would love to! _answered in her mind Fuu, _I really should have read the book about this Story… I mean, vague memories of a movie I saw something like five years ago is not helping that much… I already don't understand what the hell this story is doing on One Piece Universe, but I wish would know at least enough about it to warn my nakamas, tsk…_

"Hum…" paused Zoro, "And someone can tell me why we always end up in the middle of conflicts for the throne?"

"True, you were already in that kind of mess when I met you with this princess at Alabasta… Seems like this Baka-Otouto is always putting his nose anywhere he wants…" remarked Ace with an amused smile for Luffy, "But more importantly, Fuu…"

"Yes?" answered Fuu, abandoning her own thoughts.

"Do you know what kind of power the Queen uses?" asked Ace with a very serious expression.

"If all these animals didn't revolt against her before that, we kind of guess she is powerful, but how much?" added Marco with the same serious look.

"The Queen is a great Sorceress… As far as I remember, she is the one who froze Na… hum, Fimbul in an everlasting winter…" began Fuu, digging in her memories.

"Hum… That would corroborate what the innkeeper had said…" muttered Robin for herself.

"But more frightening than anything," added Fuu with a cautious look for everyone around, her expression making Luffy, Usopp and Chopper hanging at her lips to know the rest, "She has the power to petrify anyone opposing her into ice statues!"

"HEY?" cried all the others, with various expression.

"Ice statues?" repeated Chopper with a concerned expression, "You mean like when Aokiji had frozen Robin?"

"Petrify?" repeated Luffy who had tried to follow the conversation in case the Queen would have had an amazing super-cool laser weapon or something, "Like Hancock?"

"Hum, no… I think it's a little different…" paused Fuu while gazing at the window beyond which was resting the private garden of the Queen and its controversial ice statues, "A bit between the two, I would say: not entirely rock, but way more than a mere ice cover…"

"Oy oy, that sounds serious!" panicked Usopp, "What should we do? We need to run away and leave this creepy place, then…"

"Or we can just knock out of the way the Queen if she picks a fight with us!" cut Luffy with a punch in his hand.

"I don't think it's that simple anymore…" flatly answered Robin.

And the archaeologist eyes wandered on Fuu, who had sighed and went away to stare at the ice statues in the garden with a guilty expression.

"Not after the dinner scene…" finished Robin with a concerned look.

"Yeah…" confirmed Ace with a glance for the hazelnut-haired girl at the window, "When Fuu stopped the Queen before she could enchant us, the Witch noticed!"

"We could see in her eyes that she considered Fuu as a threat, even if you were hereafter two to challenge her hospitality…" pursued Marco with a glance for Fuu then Robin, "That's precisely why we ended up in this apartment!"

"So you think we're being watched?" asked Sanji with a suspicious look for the door and the windows.

"I don't feel any presence…" retorted Zoro while staring at the walls and the ceiling.

"Oh, If Marimo says it, that means there is REALLY no reason to worry!" mocked Sanji while dragging on his cigarette.

"Oh?" snapped Zoro, a vein appearing on his forehead, "And that comes from a dumb Ero-Cook not the heck able to go past his stupid admiration for the Queen to realise something was damned wrong…"

"What?" snapped Sanji with an angry expression, "You want to fight, Seaweed-Head?"

"When you want…" answered Zoro while putting his hand on his katana.

And the we-don't-even-count-anymoreth battle between the two rivals started.

"Oh, stop it, you two!" ranted Nami, but they weren't listening anymore.

The navigator thus heaved a deep sigh and turned towards her nakama, who was still looking beyond the window.

"Fuu, what do you think would be the best?" asked Nami with a serious expression, "If the Queen is as you described it, Usopp is right: we should leave this island quickly… The Log Pose can wait!"

_I know… _thought Fuu while contemplating the snowy scenery, _I also hope not to be mistaken when saying the Queen is evil, based on a mere memory from the real world… But I also wish that my damn lacking memory is not putting Ace, Marco, Luffy and the others in trouble! I don't want them to become ice statues adorning this creepy garden because of me!_

_Hum, now that I think about it… it's strange! There are only frozen centaurs or fauns and griffons in this garden, not a single human being, although there should have been lots of pirate crews reaching this island of the New World… And if the prophecy is still valid, that should mean that no Son of Adam had come already, or that they were all annihilated by the Witch… Hum, then I can only think of a paradox caused by my brother manipulation of this universe Story, but why now, and why THIS paradoxical story? I mean, it makes no sense with One Piece… What should I do?_

Fuu glanced with concern at the statues below her, softly putting her hand on the translucent ice glass.

BZZZ!

"Kyaaa!" screamed Fuu out of pain at the violent electric shock that had electrocuted her upon touching the window, sending her flying backward on the floor.

"FUU! Are you okay?" exclaimed Nami and Ace who had run towards her with worried faces, soon followed by Chopper.

"Y… yes, it's nothing big, sorry…" reassured Fuu, panting a bit, while trying to get back on her feet with their help.

"Nothing?" moaned Chopper who was already examining her, "But it looks like you took a big electric shock!"

"What?" tilted Marco, Zoro and Sanji.

"Impossible…" muttered Marco while walking straight to the window and pinning his hand on the ice glass.

BZZZ! Another violent shock sent the First Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet on the ground near Fuu, even if he endured it way better than the hazelnut-haired girl.

"What the…?" groaned Zoro, while drawing his katana to attack the window, but without success.

Despite all the strength of the swordsman, the sabre was not reaching the stained glass ice window, the edge of the katana seeming to rebound on it with plenty electric sparks.

"Here… here too…" mumbled Usopp while taking back instantly his hand dark with electric burns after having tried to open the door.

"Hey?" answered Luffy, perplexed, while opening wide the very same door, under the amazed and dumbfounded expression of Usopp.

"But of course! Luffy is in gum, so he endures electricity without troubles!" exclaimed Nami, "Luffy, can you step into the corridor?"

"Can't…" grumbled Luffy while running in mid-air without progress, not going past the doorstep, as if blocked by an invisible wall.

_A kekkai… a magical barrier! _thought Fuu while getting back on her feet with Ace's help, _No wonder the guards let us alone… This Queen is way more problematic than what I had thought… She knows we know… but at least now her intentions are established!_

"Are you kidding? We really can't step out of this suite?" exclaimed Marco while taking back his human form amidst disappearing blue flames, after having failed to break a nearby wall and rebounded on the electric barrier too.

"Well, then how about waiting until tomorrow morning." proposed Robin with a reflexive expression, "When the guards will come and pick us up for breakfast, we should be able to leave."

"Indeed…" corroborated Nami but with a slightly annoyed look.

"Humph…" mumbled Zoro, Sanji, Ace and Marco, but without having a better suggestion.

"So we need to spend the night here?" cried Usopp, already trembling with a bothered look.

"Hey, so we're going to sleep in these big funny beds all soft? GREAT!" exclaimed Luffy, unaware of the surrounding pressure as usual, before dashing to the four-poster bed to joyfully jump on them.

Nami slapped her own forehead and everyone heaved a deep sigh, a drop of weary sweat appearing on their temples.

"Well…" finally said Nami while gazing at her captain bouncing all over the white beds with childish burst of laughter, "After all, it's not that stupid! We can just take care of the problem tomorrow. It's no use to panic right now."

Zoro, Sanji, Robin, Marco, Ace and Fuu looked at the stupidly overjoyed grin of Luffy as he was rebounding in rhythm from one bed to another, as if playing leap-frog on the five wide beds, soon joined by Usopp who had forgotten his fear to enjoy this new game, Chopper who was finding the bouncing exceptionally funny too, and Nami who had come to watch over them with a tender gaze.

The six other pirates sighed, world-weary, but their lips started drawing a faint smile at the sight.

_Why not… _thought they in unison.

"Hum, to be honest, there's still a problem with this suggestion…" noticed Robin with a neutral tone.

"What AGAIN?" screeched Zoro and Sanji.

Robin's finger pointed at the beds, from left to right.

"Five." said she flatly.

Then she pointed at the Mugiwaras, Ace, Marco, Fuu, and herself.

"Ten…" counted she with a neutral tone.

"So what?" grumbled Zoro while crossing his arms, "You're not going to nit-pick on sharing beds?"

Fuu had turned white and red at the same time, perfectly understanding Robin's remark.

"Then, Ken-san, you will probably understand better if I tell you we are ten people but an odd-numbered of women and men." smiled Robin with a platonic expression.

CLONG. The mouths of Zoro, Sanji and Ace had just unhooked in a significant silence, while Marco's eyes had widened with an amused expression.

Indeed, the beds were wide enough for two people, but there were only three girls in the group, meaning than one of them will have to spend the night in the same bed as one of the seven remaining guys.

Embarrassment lasted until joyful screams came from the three idiots bouncing on the beds.

"Shishishi! So fun!" was laughing Luffy while crossing in mid-air with Chopper and Usopp and striking poses, "Come on, Nami, that's so funny!"

"Luffy, she should go and sleep!" tried to refuse Nami, the idea of joining the one she loved fighting fiercely with the concept of keeping her dignity and not joining such a childish game, "We should take some rest for escaping tomorrow…"

"Come on, we just need to punch out the Queen!" grinned Luffy while sitting down on the edge of the bed near Nami, "But after breakfast! Food here is just so great!"

"Hey, Luffy," arrived Zoro, his cheeks still a bit flushed, "For tonight… well, it's about the beds, we've got a problem… We need to share them among us, and…"

"Hey, really?" asked Luffy while raising his eyes towards his nakama, "Okay, then… Nami, we sleep together?"

BONG. Sanji's leg had fallen hard on a straw hat, while Nami had frozen, her cheeks slightly blushing.

"What the heck do you think you're proposing to Nami-san?" shouted Sanji while keeping in the fury from the remembrance of the kiss between his captain and his goddess-navigator the very same day: _I can TOLERATE that Nami-san wants to be with you, if it's for her happiness… But don't jazz it up!_

"Ugh, I can't then?" asked Luffy with a disappointed gaze for his navigator.

_Luffy… _thought Nami when looking at her boyfriend's face.

"Okay, then I sleep with Chopper!" grinned Luffy while catching Chopper and cuddling him in his arms.

CRASH. Nami's face had crumbled of sourness, her chin falling down until reaching her chest.

"Hey, I'm not a hot-water bottle!" protested Chopper.

"Luffy, unfair! I wanted to sleep with Chopper too!" complained Usopp while trying to steal the little doctor from Luffy's arms.

"I don't want to!" answered Luffy with the sulking expression of a spoiled brat, "Chopper is all soft and warm!"

"Stop making fun of the reindeer!" snapped Chopper while briskly transforming into his humanoid form.

"Gyaa, a monster!" screamed Usopp, his eyes bulging out of their sockets, while Luffy was laughing even harder.

_Oh my… Seems like the beginnings of our LuNa couple are not going to be easy… _thought Fuu, upon watching Nami sulk because Luffy didn't insisted more than that to sleep with her.

And she repressed a laugh in front of the lack of love intelligence of their captain.

"This bunch of idiots…" sighed Zoro while slapping his forehead with his hand.

"Looks like we have found one or two pairings already, heehee…" laughed Marco with an amused expression for the three idiots.

"Nami-swan!" twirled Sanji with heart-shaped eyes and shining-armour-knight tone, "Don't worry about this bed sharing stuff, I'll protect you, even if I need to sleep on the ground for that!"

But Nami just sighed at the dedicated declaration of the gentleman.

"Of course, that goes for the three of my most important goddesses!" added the cook while looking at Fuu and Robin with a very devoted expression, "I'm ready to anything to protect you!"

"Hum, you know, Sanji, we're not obliged to reach such extremities…" said Fuu with a drop of annoyed sweat appearing on her temple.

_Why are they always so extremist?_

"True, Sanji-kun." answered Nami in a sigh, "We can just do it like usual: I'll sleep with Robin…"

And the navigator smiled at the archaeologist who slightly nodded.

"It doesn't matter!" groaned Zoro while scratching his head, "Even like that, it's still odd-numbered!"

"True…" smiled Marco with an ambiguous smile, "So what about you, Fuu? With whom are you going to sleep?"

Everyone's eyes converged towards the hazelnut-haired girl: anxious looks awaiting her decision and hoping to be her choice, cunning looks waiting for the comical reactions of the others after the choice, and one pair of pitiful eyes whose owner just pointed at herself with an distressed expression.

"Hum, me…" began Fuu with a more and more troubled expression, "I… I'll just sleep on the sofa, I guess…"

_I take back what I just said about extremist decisions, sigh…_

"Out of the question!" shouted in unison Nami, Sanji, Ace and Zoro while baring their teeth.

_Huh?_

"If someone must sleep on the sofa, that would be one of the guys!" retorted Nami while crossing her arms, "Don't let them push it onto you!"

"Yeah, Fuu-chwan. You have to take good care of your magnificent body…" added Sanji with a lecturing tone.

_Sigh… What are you saying, both of you? It would have been way easier if Sanji had JUST accepted to let our two lovey-dovey nakamas sleep in the same bed! Or if the two idiots fighting over Chopper could JUST let him sleep with a girl rather than using him as a bed-warmer…_

_Sigh, double sigh… How come we've switched from the tense situation of being hostages to the one of fighting over beds? All of that because of the Queen's spell, tsk… Spell… Oh, but of course: I can just use my power to create another bed, and everything should be fine!_

But Fuu didn't have time to offer her solution to the audience, because a comment of Robin suddenly made her lose track of what she was thinking.

"And… why would you not choose Ace?" calmly asked the archaeologist, some pieces of memories showing her images of herself waiting for Fuu outside of Ace's cabin, "You have already spent some nights together before, if I'm not mistaken…"

"WH…?" startled Fuu and Ace, blushing intensely at the remembrance.

TCHAK. Zoro had drawn his swords of a few centimetres by a thumb impulse and was now glaring at Ace with a dark look.

Sanji's cigarette had dropped from his lips under the shock, and the cook was muttering something like 'it can't be true'.

Nami was staring at Fuu with a stunned expression, wondering if what she had perceived between her friend and Luffy's brother – and that Marco's nakamas had highlighted at the hot springs – could be true in the end.

And the commotion even attracted Luffy's, Chopper's and Usopp's attention.

"Th… that's wasn't really…" babbled Fuu for her defence, waving her hands on the side with a blushing and panicking expression.

"Hum… And if I remember correctly, you didn't even step out from Ace's cabin for a whole 48 hours…" added Marco with an ambiguous tone, hoping to make the situation worst – a prospect he always found delightfully funny.

WhiteBeard's First Commander: 1 Victory! His comment brought forth the desired results.

Sanji had by now fainted, knocked out by the news, and Chopper was panicking and running around calling a doctor, before realising it was him. A deathly frosty aura was now emanating from Zoro and he had entirely drawn his sword, while Usopp was trying to calm him down before running and hide behind a wardrobe at the sight of the black light in the swordsman eyes. Luffy was looking at his brother with a very puzzled look, his head bent on the side, before finally asking Nami why it was a problem to spend 48 hours in bed with Fuu, and Nami could only blush a little and sighed at such an innuendo. And Robin had let out a little admiring whistle at the hinted performance, even if she doubted of its veracity.

Marco had gotten closer to Ace, bending over to try and see what expression was making the Second Commander of the Fleet under the hat which was shadowing his eyes. And suddenly: BONG!

"SHUT UP!" had yelled Ace while knocking out Marco with a violent – and serious – punch on his nakama's head, "Just shut up! She was exhausted at that time…! She spent two full days sleeping, never minding the week of recovery after the Buster Call! Do you have any idea of how much I was worried?"

SHIN. The Mugiwaras were staring at Ace in silence, shocked to see him crack up like that, and even Zoro was taken aback by seeing Ace lose his cool for the first time ever since they had known him.

"So just shut up, would you… I never… I never did… she… I… tsk…" finished Ace while averting his eyes with his cheeks beat red, anger having turned into self-consciousness.

Marco sighed and didn't insist. He just gazed at Fuu with an amused expression, and smiled even a bit more when seeing that the girl in question was still stunned, her cheeks way more red than usual.

_Ace?_

Fuu gazed at Ace with a very guilty – yet happy and thus even more guilty to feel happy – expression, trying to weight in his eyes how much trouble she had caused him and how much worry she had inflicted him. She saw his fists trembling with anger and embarrassment.

_My fault… _thought she while biting her inferior lips, _Be it back then when I abused my power and relied on him… or now when I challenged the Queen without thinking it would involve my nakamas… my fault…_

Fuu swallowed back her previous embarrassment and clenched her fists with determination between turning her heels and walking towards the door.

_My responsibilities… So who cares! If I need to use my power to get out of this situation, at least let's use it for something useful, for once…_

"Fuu?" began Nami, the first one to have abandoned the previous episode to react to her friend's action, "What are you…?"

Fuu had pinned her hand on the invisible barrier surrounding the apartment and trapping them into the royal suite, and small electric sparks started to fuse from the contact point. She clenched her lips tight together in a determined expression, camping her feet strongly in the ground to gain support, and released her Devil Fruit power in a pushing movement against the kekkai.

"Fuu!" shouted Ace while dashing towards her at the moment he saw electric sparks flashing amidst wind gulfs around the hazelnut-haired girl.

"Tsk, that baka…" mumbled Zoro while sheathing his katana before running towards the girl, soon followed by the rest of the group.

The numerous lightning sparks exuding from the magic barrier while Fuu was progressively forcing her way through it to break it were sizzling in blinding wind draughts. Fuu kept on pushing, clenching her teeth, forcing herself not to listen to her body who was screaming with pain for each bruise and burning scratch the kekkai was giving her to defend itself against her power.

"Fuu…" muttered Nami, helplessly worried for her friend.

The powerless audience couldn't even get closer than two metres. Luffy and especially Ace were trying to enter the perimeter to reach Fuu, worried sick to see her using her power again, and for so powerful a 'spell', but the pressure of the invisible kekkai was fatally keeping them away.

_Grr… A little bit more… just a little bit more… _was mumbling Fuu for herself, releasing more and more of her Hoshi Hoshi no Mi power into her hand to break the magical barrier.

And suddenly, in a torrential burst of lightning sparks and white smoke, the Queen's magic barrier imploded, sending everyone flying backward – from a few centimetres to several metres depending on the person.

_Kof, kof… _coughed all the spectators, searching amidst the smoke veil to discern the issue of the match between the power of the White Witch and the one of their angel-winged nakama.

"Fuu! Hey, Fuu?" was calling Ace, who had caught back the girl in his arms after her gliding amidst the blast of the explosion of the kekkai.

Chopper had already run towards them with his little bag and was examining Fuu with an awful expression. Her skin was now chiseled with electric burn marks, especially her arms, and she was panting a lot.

"I'm fine…" mumbled Fuu while stumbling back on her feet, "More importantly, we need to leave… The Queen has probably already detected that we had forced through her magic barrier…"

Ace and Chopper stared at her with frowning looks of disapproval, but Luffy chimed in with a serious tone.

"Yosh! Then we're going! We're not going to waste your efforts…" declared he while digging his hat back on his head and determinedly walk towards the corridor.

"Fuu, are you really okay?" asked Nami while coming closer, worry showing on her face.

"Can you stand? And walk?" asked Robin, also worried for her friend.

"Don't push yourself or Oyaji is going to chew us hard…" teased Marco with half-a-smile.

"Of course I'm fine!" affirmed Fuu while forcing a smile on her lips, "Come on, don't worry so much!"

"Let's go!" said Luffy while leading the way out of the apartment, at running speed, followed by everyone else.


	17. Story IV, Quest, Winter

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

…

Hundred Years Winter, the Tale of a Curse

…

**FIMBUL, ICE PALACE**

"Turn right!" instructed Nami upon reaching a crossing of ice corridors.

The Mugiwaras, Ace, Fuu and Marco were still running, searching for the exit amidst the frosty maze that Queen Jadis had as a Palace.

"I remember the way we took when coming, so follow me closely! Especially you, Zoro! And you, Luffy!" added Nami while catching the hand of their captain in her own, knowing by experience that it was rare for everyone to stay together in this kind of situation.

"You too, Ace…" mocked Marco with half a smile for the one running on his right and who – despite his really good orientation sense – was often losing track of everyone when deep in his thoughts.

And indeed, Ace wasn't even listening: he was more preoccupied by the girl out of breath running behind him than by the directions given by his brother's navigator.

"Fuu, if you're too tired, we can carry you…" offered Ace, even hesitating in taking her in his arms without asking her permission but backing off to avoid another bump on his head.

"No way!" ranted Fuu with determined eyes, "Don't even think about it while everyone else is running!"

_I'm not as light as Chopper! And not in distress enough to bear with being 'carried'! I can manage on my own, tsk… I still have enough energy left from my 'spell' to do at least that… Even if I must admit I should have trained to marathon in our world: my mere jogger experience is definitely not up to the level of Shounen manga characters… even Robin and Nami seem to easily keep up, so frustrating!_

And the little group finally reached the doorstep of the imposing entrance of the Ice Palace, which was obviously locked. Everyone stared at the double-door of nearly ten metres high with circumspection – bitterly remembering the electric sparks back in the apartment – and Fuu finally walked towards it and carefully put her hand on its hinged section.

"No barrier!" sighed she with relief at assessing that the Queen hadn't put any magic kekkai on it.

"Move!" said Zoro while putting his hands on the hilts of two of his swords, "Nitouryu Iai: Rashomon!"

The swordsman jumped towards the titanic double doors, unsheathing at light speed and attacking the obstacle in a brief second, before swiftly landing back on the floor.

TCHAK. At the same time Zoro was sheathing back his two katanas, the immense doors fell down in a crumble of multiple blocks, under the adoring expression of Chopper and Usopp and the admiring smile of the others.

"Let's go!" shouted Luffy while leading one more time the little troop outside at running speed.

But once the doors crossed, a huge obstacle was awaiting them. Queen Jadis didn't bluff when she said they were pulling back the bridge at sunset: more precisely, the bridge of blue ice they had taken on their way in had quite simply disappeared.

"Grr, we're blocked!" screeched Usopp upon seeing the abyss of darkness surrounding them.

"I can't see!" ranted Luffy, his hand at the level of his eyes to scan beyond the precipice, "I can't grab something if I can't see it!"

"Whatever, there was only snow on the other side, nothing you could use as an anchorage point…" remarked Sanji while dragging on his cigarette, his eyebrows frowning in front of the pitfall.

"Marco, you can cross under your phoenix form, right?" asked Ace while gazing at the distance separating them from the other side of the snowy mountain.

"Of course I can, but don't forget I can't carry anyone on my complete phoenix form, you would be burnt!" reminded the First Commander of WhiteBeard's Float with a weary expression.

"So what are our options?" asked Nami, "The ice soldiers are going to arrive soon…"

And as if to confirm her comment, the sound of frozen metal of the Queen's armours chimed beyond the entrance door. Nearly a hundred of Royal Guards were slowly coming their way, ice spears ready to use in their hands.

"Tsk, we don't have time anymore…" muttered Ace while digging his hat on his head, his upset expression resembling its hat second smiley.

"I could… make us float until the other side…" offered Fuu, still short of breath and mentally trying to measure how much energy such a powerful 'spell' would cost her, but without showing her worry on her face.

"Rejected!" declared Ace on a tone without alternative, "You're already tired, and that's ten of us…"

SCREECH. The shadow of a huge bird suddenly grazed them.

_Huh?_

"What?" exclaimed Zoro upon looking up at the dark silhouettes of half a dozen of immense birds flying in a close aerial formation above their head.

"Hurry up!" rang up the voice of the young woman riding on the bird leading the detachment.

"You're late…" grumbled Marco while hiding a smile at recognizing the voice of his nakama whose russet hair was blazing in the night.

The huge birds – which turn out to be griffins – swoop down low flying between the ice soldiers and the pirates, landing in a flutter of wings, and the Mugiwaras rushed to jump on their back.

"Fuu, come on!" shouted Ace while seizing her hand to lift her up and pull her in front of him on the croup of a griffin.

The ice soldiers had started throwing their spears towards the birds, and the only one who hadn't taken off yet were Fuu and Ace.

"Kagero!" roared Ace while sending a stream of fire melt the ice weapons.

"Hold on tight!" warned the griffin who was carrying them.

And the last griffin dashed towards the precipice, spreading its wings and making them fly off from the Palace entrance plaza.

Fuu glanced back beyond her and Ace's back, and her eyes widened when seeing Queen Jadis standing on the doorstep of the Ice Palace, her spectre pointed towards the skies.

"Icy Wind!" chimed in the voice of the Ice Queen.

"Kyaaa!" screamed Fuu while clinging to the feathers of their mount.

The violent blast destabilized the griffin, who had to incline at forty-five degrees to avoid the biggest part of the attack.

"Damn it! … Kyokahen!" shouted Ace while sending behind him a new salve of flames to form a wall in mid-hair and block the second 'Icy Wind' that Jadis had sent them.

"Hang on to me, we're going to distance her!" announced the griffin while swiftly recovering his flying position and dashing brutally with a lacing trajectory.

"ACE!" yelled Fuu upon seeing him – who was still countering the Queen's attacks – slide along the frozen feathers of the griffin and topple over towards the abysses surrounding them.

Ace had only realized he was falling when Fuu has screamed his name, but it was too late for him to cling to their mount: the frosty gust of wind from the Queen's attacks had rendered the feathers as slippery as black ice… And Ace felt that he was irreparably falling, as if drawn by the darkness of the precipice.

"Golly Gosh!" swore the griffin with a swift U-turn, but another ice gust sent by Jadis shook him more and prevented him from catching back his passenger – him as well as the griffin carrying Nami and Luffy who had flew back at full speed to help them.

Amidst the wind blast, Fuu stared in the Palace direction with a dark glare, her eyes seeming to get clouded by a screen of black frost caused by the rage she was feeling.

_Grr… I'm going to… _inwardly rumbled Fuu, while particles of white light seemed to irradiate from her whole body and assembled in her hand without her even having to pronounce her 'spell' incantation.

DOMM. And she released forcefully her power in a whirlwind of light, sending a violent blast of shining wind towards the Palace and its royal owner, several cut carving into her skin as a price for the 'spell' used.

Queen Jadis blocked the stinging light gust with a magic shield of ice, but the soldiers were projected against the ruins of the entrance door in a twister of stardust.

"Wow…" let escape Nami in a breath, while their griffin was recovering its position, gaping at the sight of this new attack definitely as powerful as Admiral Kizaru's laser.

"ACE!" yelled Fuu while averting her attention from the Queen and releasing her hold on their mount to dive deliberately in the emptiness.

_Baka! Baka! BAKA!_

"FUU!" screamed Nami at seeing her friend flowing into darkness on Ace's heels.

"ACE! FUU!" shouted Luffy, finally stable on the griffin and launching his arms across space to grab them, but obscurity made him miss his targets, "Tsk!"

Fuu was still falling in the dark precipice, her eyes pinned on Ace's silhouette.

"Ace!" called she upon reaching his level, resolutely stretching her hand towards him.

"Fuu? What the…" exclaimed Ace when she entered his field of vision, her presence troubling his train of thoughts: _What the heck is she doing here? She also fell? Don't tell me she jumped into space just to come and pick me up? Don't tell me it's THAT? What the…? I can manage on my own! At worst, I would have absorbed the fall with a fire pillow and I would just have to climb back to the top of the mountain… What does she think she's doing?_

"Ace…" called Fuu while stretching her fingers as far as possible in his direction, a worried and supplicating expression on her face.

_Baka… _thought Ace with half a smile, upon reaching out his hand to seize Fuu's and pull her on to him.

FLASH. At the same moment, tens and tens of metres above, Nami and Luffy saw an intense white-golden light shine in the darkness.

"Wh…" muttered they, worried for their two nakamas fallen from their griffin.

FLUUT. A pair of immaculate wings had sprouted from Fuu's back, while she was implementing a levitation 'spell' on Ace, who was holding her on to his chest.

And some new cuts lacerated her skin, as if to remind her that the power of the Hoshi Hoshi no Mi was not to be trifled with.

"Hey!" exclaimed Ace while softly wiping beads of blood dripping from a cut on Fuu's cheek, "Why did you follow me if your energy level is so low already?"

_Now that I think about it, why? _thought Fuu with a faint idiotic grin, her eyes hidden under the shadow of her hair, _I could have made him levitate from the distance, to be sure… I'm definitely an idiot!_

TLING. Nami and Luffy witnessed with a sigh of relief that Fuu had stopped their fall and was now bringing them up towards their griffin with ample flutters of wings.

"Wow… Her power is really powerful!" exclaimed Nami while admiring the golden bubble of Fuu's levitation 'spell' which was making Ace float as if he weighted nothing., "Why isn't she using it more often…? Hey Luffy, have you seen that?"

"Hum…? Oh, yeah, Fuu's Devil Fruit is super great!" admitted Luffy, but the frown on his forehead contrasted with the smile he had forced on his lips.

**

* * *

FIMBUL, BEAVERS'S ONSEN, COURTYARD**

"Fuu! Ace!" rushed Nami when her two friend's griffin landed in the courtyard of the inn kept by the beavers, a few minutes after them, and nearly a quarter of hour after everyone else.

Everyone gazed at them with an apprehensive expression, having heard about their fall by Luffy and Nami – especially Nami.

Ace swiftly jumped down from their mount while carefully holding Fuu in his arms:, a Fuu pale and completely out of breath but ranting that she was fine and could walk by herself – statement everyone doubted with good reason.

"Ace, let them take care of Fuu. We've got a serious matter at hand!" advised Marco upon putting his hand on Ace's shoulder and pointing from his thumb their guests.

Following Marco's stare, Ace looked at the fascinating silver-feathered griffin and imposing black- sapphire coated centaur facing him.

He glanced at Marco's determined eyes, and regretfully entrusted Fuu to Sanji who carefully brought the girl inside, following a beaver employee, and Chopper on their heels with his little backpack ready.

Ace could still hear the faint complaint of Fuu moaning that she was okay and he smiled at the nonsense she was pulling before joining the audience in a wide circle around the big fire lit in the middle of the courtyard, sitting next to his brother.

"Let me introduce you to the two main leaders of the rebellion against the White Witch." announced Robin while presenting the two fantastic creatures, "They were explaining us the current situation until your arrival."

"Oh, nice to meet you…" raised up and bowed very politely Ace, "My name is Portgas D. Ace, and I apologize for having interrupted your conversation."

"Please do not concern yourself with that…" answered the griffin leader, "We have been quite… surprised… to learn how you had escaped your fall in the precipice…"

"Your friend," hesitated the centaur leader with an interrogative look for Ace and the surrounding pirates, "Is she also a… sorceress from Charn?"

"I beg your pardon?" asked Robin, taken aback upon hearing the name of the legendary country of magicians and sorceress pronounced in such a normal tone.

"The Ice Queen is native from Charn: she left her dying world and invaded our Kingdom by using her magician power to plunge this country into a never-ending snow tempest: Hundred Years Winter…" pursued the centaur, his eyes shining with hatred at the mention of the Queen.

"So… we were wondering if… if your friend…" mumbled the griffin leader with a troubled and concerned tone.

"NO! Fuu is our nakama!" interrupted straight Luffy with his determined yet emotionless face, "And even if she has a Devil Fruit a bit powerful, she's not like your Queen!"

"Oh… my apologies…" muttered the griffin with an embarrassed tone.

"Only a Devil Fruit user?" wondered the centaur while turning his head in the direction towards which Fuu had been taken into the inn to be treated, "However… she does not smell like you all…"

Robin suddenly raised her head to stare at the centaur leader: _Fuu is so fundamentally different from us?_

"Of course she smells differently: Fuu is a girl!" retorted Luffy while crossing his arms, still remembering perfectly all the lessons Fuu had given him some time ago about the differences between guys and girls.

SHIN. A little silence followed, before everyone started laughing at their captain's comment.

Even the centaur leader – who had stared at Luffy in disbelief at first – ended up smiling upon seeing this young human caring so less about the nature of the people surrounding him as long as they were friends. And he decided to go back to the other matter at hands.

"Before your arrival, we were announcing to your friends that our real King is presently on his way to this place, in order to meet with you." repeated the leader, aiming at Ace.

"Your King? For us…? Why would he?" calmly asked Ace, but frowning a bit at the declaration, "Your Queen – or Witch, if you prefer – also seemed to be interested in us. Is that because we are… Sons of Adam?"

"It is correct, indeed…" admitted the griffin leader, considerably surprised at the comment, "If you have already heard about this term, I can readily vouch that you also know about the prophecy saying that the throne will be restored to our King thanks to the help of some Daughters of Eve and Sons of Adam."

"Yeah, we…" began Usopp, but the rest of his sentence was cut by his nakama.

"Yes, we have heard about it." had interrupted Robin, cutting short to the fact that Fuu was the one who had told them about it, by fear of bringing new suspicions upon her friend.

"It has been a long time now, such a long time we are watching out for the day this prophecy will come true." confessed the centaur leader.

"As such, when you landed on this island, when the letter from the Palace came, we have followed you slightest actions and gestures. Upon not seeing you coming back, your friends who had stayed behind at the inn left searching for you and we helped them in rescuing you." completed the griffin leader.

"Oh… Beaver-san, you were in reality an emissary? Could it be the reason why Luffy met you so easily on the way between the coast and here?" asked Ace with a lecturing smile for the beaver innkeeper also present around the fire.

"I am deeply sorry…" whispered the beaver while lowering his apologetic and shameful eyes on the flames.

"Ace! Don't pick on our beaver friends!" retorted Luffy while pointing at his big brother with a challenging expression.

"Okay, my bad…" apologized Ace in a smile, putting his hands up to show his redemption.

And that was the moment Sanji, Chopper and Fuu chose to join the assembly in the courtyard.

"Fuu!" exclaimed Ace, unconsciously standing up, "Are you feeling okay?"

"Of course! Chopper is a fantastic doctor, you know!" commented Fuu with a conniving smile for the little reindeer.

"Pff… If you think you can just flatter me like that… It's not making me happy at all, baka human!" answered Chopper while dancing with joy, which contradicted a lot the words he had just spoken.

_Of course, I can't tell him that I forced Chopper to give me a pill that tasted like some super bitter horror movie in order to recover MOMENTARILY from my exhaustion – but well, the saying goes that the more disgusting the medicine, the more effective it is, so I should be in top condition now – and that I bribed Sanji with puppy eyes so that he wouldn't tell anyone about the fact that I shouldn't be standing up YET! _ thought Fuu with a faint sigh.

_But well, as I sow so shall I reap… What could I expect after two 'spells' that powerful and my little flying show… The Queen's kekkai, hum… Now that I think about it, Clow is going to chew me for having used my power on such a huge thing, and I should also slapped myself for not keeping my own word and interfering with the normal path of the story – a story where I shouldn't be there, tsk…_

But her nakama's comment made Fuu leave her little world.

"Fuu, you're doing better! Great!" grinned Luffy while sending his two elastic arms towards her.

"Kyaaa…" let escape Fuu, suddenly feeling her feet not touching ground anymore.

And the two gum arms had rewound, energetically propelling her towards her captain and pinning her rather not delicately on the bench right between Ace and the culprit.

BONG. BONG. Nami's fist had rung out on Luffy's head, closely followed by Fuu's fist, and leaving a splendid piled up double bump on the head of the offender.

"What do you think you're doing to someone still recovering?" yelled Nami while baring her teeth.

"I told you not to that to a girl!" reprimanded Fuu while baring her teeth too.

"Buuut…" sulked Luffy while pitifully massaging his head, "Ace is doing that all the time and you say nothing!"

Fuu froze, and felt blood flushing into her cheeks at light speed. Zoro and Sanji had titled and were eyeing the two protagonists with curiosity. Robin and Marco were watching the situation with an amused smile. And Nami had slapped her own forehead, sighing at Luffy's tactlessness.

"Th… that's different!" retorted Fuu without really thinking about it.

_Hey? Wait a second… How come it's different? Wh… why? Why Ace? Waaaahhh, why ?_

"Oy, Luffy, I assure you it's not true! Let's see, she's already hit me… hum… three, four… five times at least!" enumerated Ace with a crooked smile for Fuu, "Plus the times she scolded me, pushed me, knocked me off…"

_What the…? _blushed furiously Fuu at Ace's teasing smile.

"HEY? All of that? Fuu, you managed to knock Ace off? Wow, I'm so jealous! Me, I've always lost against him when we were little…" said Luffy, his hands behind his head and his cheeks inflated in a sulking expression, "Oh, but now I'm sure I could win!"

"Hum…" hesitated Fuu while glancing at the two brothers fighting over Luffy's groundless statement, her own feelings shared between shame and annoyance.

Fortunately, that was the moment that the King of Fimbul chose to make his entrance, and even the two brothers froze when catching sight of him.

SHIN. Silence welcomed his arrival, quietness only troubled by the admiring whisper of the audience. The two leaders griffin and centaur respectfully stood up on his approaching.

The paws of the King majestically set foot on the ground, without a noise. The nightly wind was making his shining mane ripple under the vacillating glow of the dying fire. His wide topaz eyes seemed to sound out the hearts of the ones facing him.

Even Luffy had calmed down, and all the pirates couldn't look away from the monarch who was the picture of nobility and wisdom themselves.

Wrapped in all his greatness, the real King of Fimbul had joined the circle of his guests.

"Aslan…" murmured Fuu in a breath, completely subjugated.

The Lion slowly turned his head towards her, as well as did the two fantastic leaders, disconcerted to hear her pronounce this name.

"Thus, you know of my name, Daughter of Eve?" asked Aslan with a deep and warm voice.

"Ah! Hum… I… please forgive my rudeness, I… my name is Fuu…" bowed Fuu in a curtsey, lowering her eyes on the floor while cursing herself for what she had let escaped from her lips: _Idiot! Idiot! Triple Idiot! I should really lose this bad habit of pronouncing all the words coming to my mind without thinking twice about it, especially in this world… No, actually, even in our world, it would be nice too…_

When she raised her head back, Aslan was still gazing at her with these eyes that seemed to be able to pierce through the shadows of deceit to see the truth, and Fuu apprehensively clenched her fingers on the pleats of her white dress, worried about what the King was discovering in her soul.

Ace glanced at the worried expression of Fuu and remembered the comments about the two leaders on her origins and the source of her power.

"Chibi Kagero…" called Ace while suddenly projecting a mini stream of flames from the palm of his hand to reanimate the central fire with vivid fire, his eyes pinned on Aslan with a challenging look.

_Ace?_

"I am Portgas D. Ace. It is an honour to meet you, your Majesty!" bowed Ace very politely when the Lion had diverted his attention from Fuu to look at the Son of Adam who had displayed such an impressive power.

And he slightly adjusted his hat on his head with his index to determinedly rivet his eyes into the ones of the King.

"We were told that you need people like us to get your throne back… What have you planned, if it does not seem rude to ask?" added Ace with a confident smile and still provoking the King into not looking away from him.

Aslan stared at Ace, straight into his eyes and his soul. He then slowly glanced at Fuu, before bringing back his eyes on Ace.

"You did not have to worry, young Ace…" declared the King with a benevolent smile and warm intonations in his voice, "This young lady has no reason to consider me as a threat…"

Fuu let escaped a subtle sigh of relief, and Ace crooked a faint smile at the Lion's answer.

"And respecting to your question, we indeed need you." added Aslan with a composed expression, resuming the conversation.

Fuu carefully turned her eyes towards Ace with a soft grateful smile, and they both sit down back on the bench to hear the rest of the majestic Lion story.

"Indeed, it is true that such a prophecy is being transmitted in this Kingdom, and that we have been waiting for the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve that would help us chase the White Witch from this land." narrated Aslan, his poised and heart-warming voice naturally bringing everyone's attention on him, "This land which has always been the magic country of fantastic creatures such as griffins, centaurs, nymphs, minotaurs and other intelligent species."

"But nowadays, we are only the shadows of the people and leaders we were back then… Our clans, our comrades have been decimated… captured… petrified… or sent to the ends of these lands to never come back…" pursued the griffin leader with a dark tone, "Our clans decline and wilt under the yoke of the Queen's power…"

"By the way, we were wondering… where the Queen's power is coming from?" asked Zoro with his usual collected dark expression, "She said herself it wasn't the powers of a Devil Fruit…"

"That is indeed correct." answered Aslan with a calm voice, "The White Witch has found a source of ice magic, and uses her sorceress blood to use it, since she has at her disposal the most powerful magical catalyst of our lands: an Ice Dragon!"

_A Dragon? One of these Dragons so deeply feared and respected in Dungeons&Dragons? _tilted Fuu, her eyes widening under the news.

"What's that, a Dragon? That's my father's name but it's also some creepy-crawly stuff?" asked Luffy while twitching his head on the side on a puzzled expression.

"A Dragon is a fantastic creature from ancient times." calmly explained Robin for her captain and the rest of her crewmates, "They are beings granted with powerful magic, and who resembled huge winged reptiles. Dragons can be classified depending on their magical element and their ethical alignment: Ice Dragons are very often from the race of Silver Dragons and are famous for their goodness and their wisdom, since they are living prodigiously long… I confess being utterly astonished to hear that there are still Dragons living on these lands… Grand Line is decidedly a world full of surprises!"

_Exactly what I remembered… Silver Dragons are in charge of watching over the equilibrium of the world magic… and to protect pure and innocent beings from harm… They are the very same Dragons who supply the mana of the world in Dungeons&Dragons… Creatures whose life and death is more important than the one of any other living being… Fantastic creatures who make the sun dye into scarlet when their blood flows… Mythical creatures who make the whisper of the wind die out at the same time as the world mana disappears along their last breathe… Creatures… who… ARE… the world!_

"Oh, in short, that's big lizards with wings, right?" asked Usopp to pursue Robin's description.

"To simplify it and talk only about their appearance, yes…" answered Aslan with an amused smile for the long-nosed human, "But they are also beings who have been venerated on our lands for their magic and their wisdom from the dawn of times."

_Venerated… So precious and venerated, yet sacrificed on the altar of wars between humans and magicians, in the name of a quest for power and greed? Ugh…! I hate this kind of scenarios! It twists my insides just to think about it… and this Dragon, is he…?_

Clenching her fists until her fingers turned white, Fuu was hesitating to ask the question burning her lips, not daring to pronounce words which could only bring more unwanted attention on her.

Hopefully, the griffin leader pursued the conversation and answered her so pressing yet silent question without her sollicitation.

"This Witch has therefore stooped down until imprison the last living Ice Dragon of this world to be sure of having a permanent source of magic…." screeched he in a tone where one could hear revolt and resentment, but also helplessness.

"She dared to IMPRISON this Dragon?" muttered Fuu with a barely audible voice, her eyes wide opened of horror still pinned on the fire but seeing only the empty space in front of her.

_Imprison a Silver Dragon… Such a low, selfish, revolting action…_

"Imprison him… even if it would perturb the rare flows of magic still subsisting on these lands?" muttered she, at the same time desperated and revolted by such an outrage, and definitely forgetting she had just told herself not to open her mouth anymore.

"It is correct, indeed." answered one more time Aslan, "But I am quite baffled to notice that you know about the existence and about the important role of Dragons, young Fuu… And… might you enlighten the reason behind your shaken heart, such a troubled feeling I can detect, even if closely hold on within you, since you heard about the Witch's doing?"

Her void eyes still pinned on the dancing flames of the central fire, Fuu didn't even heard herself answering the question asked by the majestic Lion.

She just felt her lips move and let escape all the indignation building up at that very moment, while her memory was showing her images of Silver Dragons swirling in the blood-tainted sky of Izmer, the life breath of their world withering away along their agony…

"Dr… Dragons are precious! They are creatures whose life and death affect the equilibrium of the magic of this earth… Wanting to subdue them to the will of anyone is a crime against the order of this world nature!" declared she with a trembling voice, her eyes still under the shadow of her hair.

_She knows… that damned Witch knows about the role of Dragons, even if it is not a creature from her own Story… She knows and yet… Grr, I'm so angry I can't even keep quiet anymore! A paradox? So what? Who cares? She stooped down to such a low way of dominating this island! A Silver Dragon on top of that, a creature I respect ever since I was a child, even if my parents had tried to explain me it was only fictional beings… So who cares if it is not my place to worry about that? Who cares if this world is not the mine? Who cares about all of that when such things are at stake?_

"Wh… why? This Witch should not have the right to even THINK about imprisoning this Dragon!" exclaimed Fuu while biting hard into her inferior lip, her voice pitching high even if she hadn't wanted to raise her tone.

SHIN. The wind blew in silence, making the flames of the central fire shimmer.

The rest of the audience was still silently gazing at Fuu, who had her hands clenched around her dress on her lap, and tears of rage blurring her eyes while she was silently taking in the blow that the news had provoked inside her.

"Hum, it is indeed true that the survival of our world is depending on their fate…" admitted softly the griffin leader, "But it is quite unusual to meet HUMANS who not only know about the situation, but also respect so deeply Dragons…"

"I ignore how you know about that, but…" began the centaur leader, as if hesitating what to tell the girl sitting across the fire in front of him.

TILT. Robin reacted to the comment of the centaur, and she stared at him with concern, a bit afraid that he would bring the topic of Fuu's origins under the spotlight again.

"… but I am somehow relieved to witness that your sense of honour and responsibilities is that noble… It seems like even if you do not smell like them, your souls are made of the same colour…" added the centaur with a mysterious smile, upon contemplating at the rest of the pirates then bringing back his eyes on Fuu.

Aslan was also gazing at the hazelnut-haired girl with a peaceful and caring smile. This reassuring report calmed down Robin's alert, and she let out a faint sigh of relief.

"Hum, so Fuu, you like these lizards, huh?" asked Luffy while scratching his head, not having followed at all the philosophical discussion about the equilibrium of magic but having understood that it was a topic important for his nakama, "Does it taste good or something?"

BONG. Nami's fist had rung out another time on Luffy's hand.

"She just said Dragons are sacred creatures and that it can make the world crumble if we harm them, so of course they are NOT for eating!" yelled Nami while baring her teeth.

"Ouch, but… Why are you girls always forbidding us to eat sacred things…?" grumbled Luffy while thinking back at Vivi and the big white Sea Cat in Alabasta, still massaging the red bump on his head.

Fuu slowly raised her eyes from the void in front of her and gazed at Luffy's pitiful expression while he was being lectured by his navigator. And in front of such a scene, she could only swallow back her anger and her frustration and couldn't help but laugh faintly.

"Sorry… I got carried away, a little…" finally declared she in a smile, the tone of her voice back to normal.

"So, on top of the Dragon, you were saying that the Witch had found a source of ice power… What's that exactly?" asked Sanji while lighting on a new cigarette.

"Is it some kind of artefact or ancient weapon?" carefully asked Robin, very interested and cautious about this part of the story.

"We ignore the details, unfortunately…" announced Aslan, some regrets echoing in his calm voice, "But thanks to this unknown power, this Kingdom had been trapped into a Hundred Years Winter, with the consequences you already heard about. She also used it to reshape the Palace you have visited near the Black Mountains cliff, and all her opponents have been turned into ice statues."

The cold wind of winter gusted on the fire in the centre of the circle.

"Myself, I am only able to momentarily counter her power with mine, because my magic is definitely not up to the Queen's new power…" confessed Aslan with a regretful tone, "Which is precisely the reason why we are now seeking your help…"

"Considering how powerful is your magic – my apologies, your Devil Fruits powers – we are hoping to break this Hundred Years Winter and bring the sunlight and the peace back on this country, with your contribution…" added the griffin leader with a particular glance for Ace and Fuu, whose powers he had already witnessed.

"Well, sure, you are in pretty big troubles!" groaned Zoro while massaging his neck, "But why are you telling us all of that? We're pirates! People not attached to any Kingdom, people you don't give orders to. And people fighting only to erase the one blocking the way to our dreams!"

SHIN. Zoro's remark had leaden the ambiance, as is a cold weight had fallen on the audience: the swordsman wasn't wrong, far from it, and everyone knew it, but it still made them skip a breath and feel something was wrong in what he said.

Aslan welcomed the comment with a philosophic serenity, but everyone else fidgeted more or less and unconsciously turned their eyes towards the one who was going to decide of everything.

"So, Luffy?" asked Zoro while also turning his head towards his captain, "What do you want to do?"

"Hum…" thought Luffy, his arms crossed on his chest while gazing at the fire with an expression impossible to interpret.

But Luffy's answer was delayed. A beaver employee had suddenly dashed towards them, panting, screaming and panicking at the same time.

"ALERT!" screamed she with a frightened expression, "The… the Royal Guards! They invaded the village! They are destroying all the houses in search for the Daughters of Eve and the Sons of Adam… and they… they're impaling everyone opposing them, sob…"

The comity united around the fire briskly stood up and run outside of the inn courtyard.

**

* * *

FIMBUL, WEST SIDE OF THE VILLAGE**

The surrounding setting was only chaos and desolation!

The Onsen kept by the beaver family had been spared – for now – but the same couldn't be said for the rest of the village, a hundred metres away from the inn. A strong smell of burnt wood was irritating the nose, and screams could be heard in the nightly wind.

"They came here even if they knew we could have already left on our ships?" exclaimed Nami, boiling up with incredulous rage.

"The Queen is ready to turn her own Kingdom into fire and bloodshed just to find us, it seems…" noticed Marco, shared between disbelief and bitterness.

The two leaders were already giving orders to their men to scout on the situation in the village, their face twisted with rage and sadness.

"So in the end… it's our fault… if this village is destroyed…" said Fuu in a blank tone, lowering her eyes on the snow and clenching her fists of frustration.

_My fault…? For provoking the Queen? Not only my nakamas but also all these people…?_

But Fuu self-recrimination was stopped by a huge noise.

BAM. Luffy had punched into a nearby pine, and the tree had collapsed in the snow.

"They can't do that…" muttered Luffy between his teeth before raising his eyes out of the shadow of his hat to stare in the direction of the village, "I'll make them pay for that!"

"Wait Luffy!" said Zoro while catching back his captain by the collar of his white vest, and preventing him from rushing towards the village.

"Let go of me, Zoro!" yelled Luffy, mad with anger, "This damned Queen can't do that to all these people! It's like in Skypiea: I'm fed up with all these bastards who think they can destroy people's lives and people's dreams just because they feel like it!"

"Hum…" nodded Zoro while releasing his captain, "So we're going to help them?"

"Of course we'll help them! These beavers are our friends: they prepared great baths for us, and also a lot of food, and we shared Kampais with them!" insisted Luffy with a glance for the beaver innkeeper, "And these big birds too: they helped us to leave the Palace! So we're not going to let them down! The ones the Queen is afraid of, it's US! If she has a problem with, she can come and pick a fight with us, only us! So that I can kick her ass, to this damned Witch!"

No need for the rest of the crew to wonder what such an upset Luffy had decided, and with some resigned yet friendly smiles, they all stared at their captain clenching his fists with determination:_ That's Luffy for you…_

"We're going!" declared Luffy while turning back to face his nakamas, "Captain's order!"

"No need for that…" sighed Sanji with a grin for his reckless yet trustworthy captain.

"Yeah…" muttered Zoro with a faint smile.

And the rest of the rest of the pirates heaved a little sigh while repressing a smile, and stared trustfully at the one they had decided to follow, be it in that battle or against the entire world.

"But… I mean… we're going to fight these lifeless creepy ice armours?" mumbled Usopp with his legs beginning to tremble of fear, "And this Witch, you remember she petrifies her enemy, right? Did I tell you I have the Does-not-want-to-end-up-as-an-ice-statue disease?"

Everyone stared at Usopp with a range of comical expression ranging from disappointment to resignation.

"Not that it matters, hum…" added Usopp, still shuddering but pretending to have all his composure, "If you really need me that much, the Great Usopp will shoot down that evil Witch for you!"

"For real?" asked Chopper with sparkling eyes in front of such a confident declaration.

"Hum, to be honest, Usopp, I would have another important mission for you, if you are willing to take it…" offered Fuu while thinking it would be a good way to use Usopp's incredible talent for running at full speed and using strange gadgets.

"Huh?" tilted Usopp, Luffy and Chopper, synchronically bending their heads on the same side to stare at Fuu with the same dumbfounded expression.

"I need you to go back to the Moby Dick." specified Fuu with a very serious tone, "In the drawer of the secretary in my cabin, there is a small silver hand mirror that had left me my brother. You should be able to use it to contact him. I want you to tell him about the Story of this island: from the Ice Queen to Aslan, I trust you to give him all the details. Then tells him that I found out one of the things he is looking for: he will understand what it means!"

_A paradox… A pretty obvious and huge paradox! A collision between two universes whose Stories shouldn't merge… And I hope he can come here soon, because I have no idea about how to solve this mess!_

Glad more than once to have a real reason to dodge the battle, Usopp turned towards Luffy, expecting his approval. The captain nodded and Fuu smiled a thank you grin at him. Then, she glanced at the long snowy way until the coast, and slowly put her hand on Usopp's chest, chanting silently the incantations of her 'spell', releasing the power of her Devil Fruit.

_It's pretty selfish to send him there while it's chaos everywhere… so the least I could do, it's…_

The speed 'spell', as well as the one of resistance against cold slowly melted inside Usopp under the shape of a silvery aura.

"Itterashai!" said Fuu and Chopper to bid him a safe trip, and Usopp gave them a thumb up before dashing towards the coast, splashing garbs of snowflakes at starting up.

"WOW!" exclaimed Chopper and Luffy with star-shaped eyes, "So cool!"

_Oups… maybe a bit too efficient, this speed 'spell'… _thought Fuu while repressing a smile.

"Fuu, we want the same thing!" jumped Luffy and Chopper on their hazelnut-haired nakama.

"Hey…?" muttered Fuu, taken aback by the request.

BONG. Ace's fist – this time – had rung up on his little brother's head.

And while Ace was silently muttering some reminders to a Luffy who was displaying an unusual serious face, the griffin scouts came back to make their report: in short, several hundreds of ice soldiers were presently occupying the village and keeping the inhabitants prisoners, and other detachments of Royal Guards were still coming from the Ice Palace.

"So, now that we have decided to help them, what is our plan?" asked Robin, interrupting Ace and Luffy conversation.

"We kick out the Queen's ass!" repeated Luffy while punching from his fist in his hand.

"We already heard this part!" barked Nami, Sanji and Zoro while baring their teeth.

"I think we should split up…" proposed Ace with a worried look for the far away burning village and then their beaver host, "We can't let the village without any protection…"

"You do not have to concern yourselves about us." declared Aslan with a firm and reassuring tone, "Do what you believe you should do, free and without anything pulling you back, as the pirates you are…"

Zoro glanced at Aslan and sighed, a faint smile on his lips.

"We should be able to reach a compromise…" muttered the swordsman while scanning the assembly.

"Just go!" sighed Marco with a determined look, "If we need to split up, my teammates and our griffin and centaur partners should be more than enough to repel some ice armours without life…"

The pirates were still weighting their options when suddenly:

SCHLING. Fuu had briskly spread her light shield to stop the dozen of ice spears launched by the Royal Guards who had just came out from a wood, some ten metres away from the inn.

And as to confirm his offer and give to the culprits a taste of what it cost to aim at his nakamas and friends with such a fallacious attack, Marco instantly transformed into his complete phoenix form. The blue fire bird took off in a gust of icy yet warm air, and flew over Fuu's magic wall – that was still protecting everyone from the spears – to dash towards the battalion of Royal Guards.

In a crackling of flames and a cracking of broken metal armours, the ice soldiers collapsed one by one on the floor, whipping up puffs of snow. And amidst the fog created by the clash of the Queen's black ice puppets and the immortal flames of WhiteBeard's First Commander, the back of Marco slowly appeared, back in his human form, stepping over a pile of dislocated armour pieces.

"Come on, Mugiwara! Hurry up! And try not to lose your way… Especially you, Ace: Oyaji would chew me hard-core…" declared Marco while crooking a smile at his nakama.

GROAR… In a majestic roar, Aslan started calling to their side all the rebel creatures stationed near the village and awaiting his signal. His call echoed through valleys and hills.

On their side, the silver-feathered griffin took off to join the formation of his people and launch a vanguard mission on the Royal Guards side, while the black-coated centaur had retrieved his huge double-edged axe and was flanking Aslan as a direct guard, soon joined by another ginger-coated centaur and several battalions of fantastic creatures ready to fight.

"Please do trust us with the situation here." instructed Aslan while staring straight into Luffy's eyes, "You should leave now."

Luffy nodded and turned back towards his nakamas to lead the way.

"Take care of yourself, young Fuu!" wished the black centaur with an eerie smile on his lips.

"Shall your flames destroy this endless winter!" wished the griffin with a look for Ace.

"Yosh! Since we can trust them for saving the village…" began Luffy with a determined look, leading everyone towards the Black Mountains where was built the Ice Palace at running speed, his eyes focusing on the shadows separating them from their opponents, "We are meeting with the Queen!"


	18. Story IV, Quest, Intruders

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

…

Meeting with the Queen

…

**FIMBUL, SNOWY VALLEY**

The Mugiwaras were running across the frosty hills of Fimbul towards the Ice Palace. They had let Marco and his crewmates with Aslan, back at the village, to take care of countering the Royal Guards and delivering the inhabitants, while themselves had taken up the mission of 'butting the Queen's ass'.

Each snowy gust was reinforcing their focus on Queen Jadis, usurper sovereign of the throne of Fimbul and holder of an extraordinary magic of ice.

"Fuu…" finally said Robin in a low voice, while turning her head towards her running friend with a very serious expression, "Do you KNOW where the Queen is pulling her magic from? This famous 'artefact' she has found…?"

"No, Robin, I don't… And no use for looking at me that seriously, I honestly do NOT know…" answered Fuu with a little sigh, "I thought it was coming from her native sorceress powers…"

_My memories are not precise enough to remember what the source of Jadis magic was, but I could have sworn it was her own powers, hum… Weird… And the other problem: Robin now knows that I know… Well, I must concede that she is the most perceptive and sagacious person of the crew – for not saying nosy snooper – so I should have seen it coming… But I wasn't expecting her to deduce all of that. So now the question is: will I still be able to muddy the waters and cloud the issue for long…? Never minding her duplicated ears wandering where you don't expect them…_

"I trust you, you know…" cut Robin with a wholehearted yet faint smile for Fuu, "Some memories are coming to me, sometimes: images of me as a child and you caring for me… It might sound very strange, I know, but I believe these memories are real! So I deeply trust you!"

_Robin… _thought Fuu with a touched yet guilty smile.

"I trust you but don't be stupid!" added Robin with a lecturing tone mixed with a comprehensive smile, "Don't be an idiot and try to bear a burden too heavy all by yourself! I do know what I am talking about…"

_Hum… _inwardly laughed Fuu, _I indeed lectured her on something like that when she was a child… Something like trusting your nakamas and sharing your burden with them to go forward, together… But I'm afraid there isn't much people from this world can do when my responsibilities of Outsider Character are at stake…_

"Hum… I will keep it in mind…" smiled Fuu with a moved expression when watching the leather bracelet she was wearing at her right wrist – a bracelet symbolizing the bonds between her and her nakamas.

And without much more conversation, the little group of pirates finally reached the precipice separating the Palace from the rest of the mountain.

"Sh…!" exclaimed Zoro at seeing that the bridge was still missing.

"Tsk!" screeched Ace at the same notice, "I had thought that with the Royal Guards down at the village, the Queen would have made the bridge reappear, but it looks like she's cautious!"

"What do we do? Return to the village and ask the griffins for some help?" asked Robin while glancing back at the inhabitations, far away downhill in the snowy valley.

"NO!" cut Luffy with a very determined tone, "They're fighting to save their friends! So we can't bother them! We'll do it on our own!"

"Franky is not with us, Luffy." reminded Nami while regretting their blue-haired cyborg who had the fantastic ability of building bridges and tunnels out of nowhere and from nothing much.

"So, what's your plan for making us cross, Luffy?" asked Sanji while mentally measuring the forty-something metres separating them from the Palace entrance plaza.

"Hum…" thought Luffy while scratching his chin, "I don't know yet…"

CRASH. The Mugiwaras and Ace had collapsed on the ground, inwardly cursing themselves for having be it a mere second IMAGINED that Luffy could have an elaborated plan.

"So, what do we do?" repeated Robin with her usual calm impassive tone.

TLING. The Mugiwaras suddenly felt their feet leaving ground, while a golden sphere of light was surrounding them, making them float.

And slowly, the bubble of light rose several metres of altitude and progressed across the precipice.

"Wh…" muttered the Mugiwaras, dumbfounded at seeing the emptiness under them while the cupola of light was still bringing them towards the Palace.

"Fuu!" shouted Ace while turning his head towards her, his tone a mixture of anger and concern.

Fuu was at the bottom of the group, her hands joined and her eyes closed in a prayer, all her body shining of an intense golden glow and her mind entirely focused on using her Devil Fruit to safely bring everyone on the over side of the cliff.

Amidst her concentration, she did not hear Ace calling her, but she felt that some new cuts were slashing her skin under the use of her power, making the voice of WhiteBeard's Second Commander rung louder.

_Ugh! Seems like it cost me way more that I had hoped… In the end, I wonder if creating a bridge out of nowhere wouldn't have been a better idea rather than making eight people float… Well, I'll never know, I guess, since it's not like I could have saved the 'game' before using my spell and charged it afterwards to test the second alternative… Despite being into a fictional universe, life is not that simple, hum…_

The group of pirates soon landed on the other side of the precipice, and Fuu slowly resorbed her levitation 'spell' to focus now on a shield of light. Indeed, while everyone was now safely both feet on the snowy ground, the ice soldiers were still patrolling the plaza.

"Baka!" exclaimed Ace while dashing towards Fuu as soon as he was able to move out of the levitation 'spell'.

Fuu had kneeled down a bit, and was breathing with difficulty, but she had forced her eyes wide open to watch the ice armours drawing closer to them.

BOM. BOM. BOM. It had started: the Royal Guards present on the plaza had started bombarding them with their spears, and several other dozens were coming from the main entrance to get rid of the intruders who had dared landing in front of them.

But the ice spears could only rebound on Fuu's white light dome.

"That makes them nearly a hundred and a half…" muttered Nami at glancing at all the enemies gathering around the light shield, "It's going to take hours just to get rid of them…"

"We can just force our way across them while staying under Fuu's shield cover. It would allow us to enter the Palace without losing time fighting…" proposed Robin, as the good expert in infiltration missions – assassination missions – she was, "Our target is the Queen, not her Guards."

Everyone looked at Luffy, waiting for his order.

Luffy, him, had followed Nami's look towards the ice soldiers, then listened to Robin's advice, and had then glanced at Fuu, who was still panting heavily even if she had managed to get back on her feet, fighting back Ace's comments and muttering that he'd 'better not try and carry her' since she wasn't 'that tired'.

Luffy's eyes met Ace's, who seemed to have also reached his limits and was now sharing the same thoughts as his little brother.

"Fuu," called Luffy, his voice as dark as the abysses behind them, "Make your shield disappear, we're massacring them!"

The hazelnut-haired girl's eyes widened at the order, and she raised her head to look at Luffy. But before she could even protest and say she thought Robin was right, Ace's stared at her and his expression silenced her.

Knowing by experience that it was futile to try and speak these two idiots D. brothers out of what they had decided, she heaved a deep sight and dispersed her magical barrier in a crackle of stardust.

"Gomu Gomu no… Hanabi!" exclaimed Luffy while sprinting towards the Royal Guards, sending fireworks of punches and kicks towards his opponents.

"Enkai… Hiken!" exclaimed Ace while assembling flames in circle around him before launching his two fists in front of him, releasing along them the assembled fire in a devastating tsunami.

Ace's wave of fire destroyed all the ice armours already knocked out by Luffy's hits.

CLONG. Nami's and Chopper's mouths had opened wide of shock in front of the result.

Zoro and Sanji didn't even have the time to take their hands out of their pockets: the two brothers had utterly slaughtered all the ice soldiers present on the entrance plaza.

The two fighters raised an amused eyebrow, and Fuu and Robin had merely drawn a faint admiring smile on their lips while Nami and Chopper were putting their hooks back in place.

"Fuu!" suddenly called Luffy while coming back to the group, "Starting now, we're taking care of everything, so I FORBID you from using your power!"

SHIN. Luffy's declaration had stupefied everyone else, and even Ace who seemed to agree with his little brother on the object of the comment seemed surprised to have been doubled at giving the order.

"Wh… what are you talking about, Luffy?" finally asked Nami, still perplexed, "Fuu's power is really useful, and…"

"That's not the problem!" retorted Luffy while crossing his arms with an angry face, "Fuu, I know that using your Devil Fruit makes your life shorter!"

SHIN. An intense silence welcomed the comment, and everyone stared at Fuu, while Fuu was looking back at Luffy with a bewildered expression.

"Your brother told us yesterday!" added Luffy with a sulking yet determined expression.

_WHAT? They… they know? No! Then, then Ace knows too…? _thought Fuu while raising her tormented eyes towards WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

"He told us everything just before you woke up, to Oyaji, Luffy and I." confirmed Ace with a small apologetic smile at seeing Fuu look at him with such a face, "He had already told us about where the energy for your 'spells' is coming from right after Marine Ford, but yesterday, he told us how much… how much it costs you…"

And Ace's fists clenched at the last part of his sentence, though he kept his usual cool composure.

_They know that a powerful 'spell' is costing me some of my life span? Clow couldn't have told them that? Why would he tell them that? Why the hell would he want to make them worry about me? WHY? I could have dealt with it alone… I could have borne it without bothering anyone else with it… Why…?_

"Yeah!" added Luffy with a lecturing tone, while pinning his eyes in Fuu's, "We know that you Devil Fruit is pumping you all your life energy. That's why it hurts you. And it shows a lot, like right now! So I don't want you to use it again!"

_Not to use it?_

"Luffy…" began Fuu, her expression torn between contradictory feelings, "You… you can't be saying you want me to watch you fighting without doing anything on my own, could you…? I mean, without my power, I can't…"

_Without my power, I am back to being the useless girl I was when I first ended up in this world… A mere spectator, without anything for me and unable to help the ones dear to me… I don't want to get through this again! Well, I must confess using a super powerful Devil Fruit to help the heroes is something I had told myself not to do, responsibilities wise, but… but I can just stay in a supportive role and keep low profile then… Not to use it, at ALL… going back to being completely useless?_

"I don't care!" dryly cut Luffy, still staring at Fuu with hard eyes.

"Hey, Luffy!" reacted Nami and Sanji, shocked to hear Luffy saying such a heartless thing.

"I… I can't…" muttered Fuu, her voice and her hands starting trembling at the thought of letting them get hurt while she was helplessly watching it.

"You'll do it! CAPTAIN ORDER!" roared Luffy, pretty serious and pretty angry too, "I don't want you to use your power for us! We'll fight without you and that's all! Your life is more important that being hurt in battle!"

"You're right!" shouted back Fuu, completely losing her cool, which was pretty rare, "For me too: I don't care if using my power hurts me! How could I just watch you being beat up without doing anything? We're nakamas, aren't we?"

"Yeah, we're nakamas!" yelled Luffy in answer, "So just trust us and don't waste your energy for things that don't matter! Being hurt when fighting, so what? That's for protecting our nakamas that we fight!"

_Ugh… _thought Fuu, swallowing back all what she had wanted to retort, _Why are these two stupid brothers saying the same stupid thing with the same stupid straight face? Unfair!_

And she could only glance at the rest of her crewmates who were now smiling at her, unanimously agreeing with their foolish captain who had – for once – said something damned cool.

"And, well…" added Luffy with a calmer expression turning into a sulking face, "If you were using your power every time there's an obstacle, our adventure wouldn't be interesting!"

CRASH. The Mugiwaras and Ace had collapsed on the snowy ground.

_Tsk, that's the only thing important for him, in the end… Why have we thought he looked cool, for a few seconds? _thought they while stumbling back on their feet.

_Oh, my… So Luffy-like… _thought Fuu while repressing a sad smile.

"So I want you to promise me that you won't use you power starting now! And it's a pirate promise: you'd better keep it!" lectured Luffy while reaching his fist towards Fuu to invite her to conclude the pact, "And just so you know, if you don't promise me, I catapult you back to the village!"

_Tsk… Luffy's win, I guess… I can't disappoint him after such a declaration, can I…? And I know he's right, somehow… I know I shouldn't help them while I'm just an unwanted guest in this story… But how to put it, it's just that I hate me for being so useless when people dear to me are in danger… Grr… _thought Fuu while staring at the leather bracelet on her wrist.

"I… promise you…" announced Fuu with regrets tainting her voice.

And she reached out her right fist to touch Luffy's.

"Yosh!" exclaimed Luffy while retrieving his usual grin, "Then, everyone, we're going to do our best to protect Fuu!"

_Huh?_

"Fuu-chan, I'll protect you against all the enemies that could want to bother you!" declared Sanji with his usual shining knight expression, twirling around her.

"Yeah, we should be able to arrange that…" muttered Zoro with a slight smile for Fuu, while crossing his arms.

"Tsk, I should have made you promise the same thing long ago, already…" confessed Ace with his usual teasing smile, while digging back his hat on his head.

"Since the four of them are so amiably proposing you…" added Robin with a friendly smile.

"Fuu, don't worry! I'll heal you if you are hurt again because of your power!" announced Chopper while clenching his paws with determination.

"We're supposed to protect her so that she does NOT have to use her power!" reminded Nami with a lecturing tone for the little doctor.

"W… wait a second… we're supposed to take care of the QUEEN…" tried to rectify Fuu while raising her hands, a huge drop of bothered sweat appearing on her temple.

_They're not listening to me anymore… _despaired Fuu, more and more drops accumulating on her forehead, _How come they switched from 'kicking the Queen's ass' to 'protect Fuu'? I mean, I'm already a burden, don't add more to it!_

And she heaved a deep sigh at seeing Luffy very spirited and shouting war cries with Chopper, while Zoro and Sanji were fighting again on something she had not followed, and Ace, Robin and Nami were trying to plan their infiltration into the Palace the most seriously they could – Luffy's shouts not helping.

_Oh my… _thought Fuu while slapping her own forehead, before repressing an amused smile.

"Okay, let's go!" finally instructed Luffy while leading everyone inside at running speed.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, MAIN HALL**

Nami, Robin and Fuu's long pleated dresses were glittering at each stride, enlighten by the candelabras lighting the main hall of the Ice Palace with a cold blue glow.

"We shouldn't have trouble with the Royal Guards, but the problem is with finding the Queen!" said Nami while turning towards her hazelnut-haired nakama.

"She is probably either in the Courtroom or in her own apartments: she's definitely not the type to stoop down to dirty work like going in person to 'pacify' the village…" answered Fuu, anger contained in her voice at the last part of her sentence.

"That leaves us with two places to search…" pursued Nami, her index on her cheek into a perplexed expression.

"I think it more probable for her to be waiting on her throne for the report from her soldiers rather than in her apartments, in my opinion…" conceded Fuu while mentally weighting each probability.

"What an amazing deduction, Fuu-chan!" flattered Sanji with a marvelled expression.

"What should we do, then?" asked Chopper, who was running under his animal form near the girls.

"I think we'd better split up and look for her in both places, just in case…" evaluated Nami.

"I think it would be best too…" corroborated Fuu.

"I think it is already the case…" calmly reported Robin.

"WHAT?" screamed Nami and Fuu while turning back to notice with horror that there wasn't anyone behind them anymore.

The little group stopped right in the middle of the hall.

"Luffy?" called Nami, stunned.

"Ace?" called Fuu, blinking with stupefaction.

"Zoro?" called Chopper, sweat-dropping with incredulity.

"Where the hell are these three idiots?" shouted the three of them while baring their teeth.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, QUEEN'S GARDEN**

Luffy was sitting cross-legged on the pedestal of one of the ice statues adorning the snowy garden, with a frankly lost expression.

"Hum… that's very strange! Why is it only me by myself? Where are the others?" wondered Luffy while putting his hand at the level of his eyes to scrutinize his surroundings.

But at this moment, several ice soldiers surrounded him by coming from the ice archways, pointing their spears at him.

They kept their position with menacing poses, but under seeing their target not reacting, the Guard leading the battalion made a small gesture to give the order to attack the intruder.

And the ice soldiers charged the still-puzzled-and-not-alert Luffy. He still jumped to dodge the attack and glared back at his opponents.

"Tsk…" groaned Luffy at the interruption, "Gomu Gomu no… Gatling!"

The volley of punches fell on the ice soldiers, projecting a gust of ice dust in the air, and Luffy finally swiftly landed near the pile of smashed armours.

He dusted away his hands, still looking unconcerned, and turned left, then right, then straight in front of him, before crossing his arms with still a lost expression.

"Hum… I should have asked them the way before crushing them!" muttered he with a sulking and bored expression.

He dug his hat back on his head and put his hands on each part of his mouth.

"Nami? Everyone? Where are you?" shouted Luffy, his voice reverberating in the cloister of the snowy garden.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, ROYAL APARTMENTS CORRIDOR**

"Tsk! What the…? I can't believe this bunch of idiots got lost!" groaned Zoro at suddenly realizing he was alone.

He looked at the empty corridor behind and in front of him.

_I remember this corridor… I think it's the one where was our bedroom: I can still smell the electric burn smell from when Fuu broke the Witch's barrier…_

"Oh well, there's only one way, after all! So they should be able to catch up with me…" sighed the swordsman while gazing at the long straight passage bordered with ice stained windows.

And Zoro walked on at a nonchalant pace, his forearm coolly resting on the hilts of his katanas.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, BASEMENT**

"Fuu?" loudly called Ace.

Ace was standing on a puddle of grey water – last remnants of the pile of metallic carcasses of the ice soldiers that had just enjoyed an 'Hiken' – at the bottom of the stairs leading down to the dungeons.

The – former – battalion of Royal Guards had had the bad idea of thinking about ambushing the Mugiwaras in the main hall, but Ace had immediately – and silently – countered, getting rid of the whole detachment emerging from the underground passage.

"Tsk, I got distracted by the guards and lost sight of them…" groaned Ace while massaging his neck, "Well, I guess I could climb up back to the main hall and search for them, but…"

Ace glanced at the dark corridor leading to the basement and from which he could sense a huge and powerful presence.

"Hum…" paused he while weighting his options and which one would be more interesting, "It should be fine… After all, this Baka-Otouto and the others are with her…"

Ace turned his head towards the aforementioned corridor. Some rattling noise of frosty metal could be heard from it, and were slowly getting closer.

"Hotarubi." called he while sending a swarm of green fireflies lighten the dark passage.

And while making flames emerge from several parts of his body, Ace took the corridor, ready to face whoever had had the suicidal idea of coming to him.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, MAIN HALL**

"I think it would be best to do without them for now…" sighed Robin while repressing a smile at remembering a perfectly similar occurrence at Skypiea.

"Don't worry Nami-san! I'll protect you with my life!" twirled Sanji with marvelling heart-shaped eyes.

"That's Fuu we need to protect!" reminded Nami while baring her teeth at the love-cook.

"I could perfectly protect myself…" remarked Fuu with a sigh.

"No, I agree with Luffy: trust us!" retorted Nami while diverting her attention from Sanji to Fuu.

And she stared at her nakama with resolve, until Fuu finally looked away, admitting her loss in another helpless sigh.

"But honestly…" muttered Nami while scratching her head, a bit – a lot – annoyed, "How can this baka say 'I take care of everything starting now' and a few minutes after that disappear like an idiot, lost at the first crossing…"

_Indeed! Considering the situation, this promise shouldn't be valid anymore… I mean, we have actually split up in several teams, but our strike force has not been shared equitably… _thought Fuu with a glance for her present crewmates, _On top of them not being the most powerful fighters, I can't bother them with being a burden, on top of that, can I? Though I guess our hard-headed stubborn captain won't consider this excuse a good enough – for him – motive to break my promise… Sigh…_

Chopper had raised his eyes to gaze at Fuu, who was still lost in her thoughts, as if mentally scanning several options.

"It's a pirate promise!" reminded Chopper with a serious tone, "And I think Luffy is right, Fuu!"

Fuu flinched and stared at their little reindeer wondering if she had spoken her thoughts out loud or something.

"You need to trust your nakamas!" insisted Chopper while staring determinedly at her.

Fuu stared back at the little reindeer's serious expression and finally heaved the third resignation sigh of these last minutes.

_A hopeless bunch of reckless fools… _muttered she to herself, while repressing a laugh at the thought that it was for this very reason that she was so fond of them.

"I know it looks bad because we've lost the three strongest…" added Chopper, making Sanji tilt at the remark, but the cook calmed down upon hearing the rest of the sentence: "But we'll still protect you! Me too, I don't like my nakamas getting hurt without being able to do anything… But you've got to trust us!"

Nami, Robin and Sanji smiled at their little nakama who seemed to have matured enough to tell someone else to count on him.

_Seems like some months apart have made every one of us grow a bit stronger… _thought they with a faint conniving expression.

"My loss…" mumbled Fuu while contemplating her nakamas, before adding in a louder tone: "I guess we'll just do without them, then…"

"Don't worry about them, Fuu-chan!" reassured Sanji upon seeing Fuu's troubled face, "That's these three idiots we're talking about! They'll be alright!"

_Well… It wasn't about THEM that I was worried, but about YOU! I mean, if the Queen finds us before we can reunite, Nami, Robin or Chopper won't weight heavy in the balance, Sanji has as for motto not to fight against any woman, and since I can't use my powers, I'm as good as totally useless… I won't even be able to protect them…_

_Tsk, instead of giving me a Devil Fruit, my stupid brother should have made me super skilled at martial arts or swordsmanship, like some implementation and conditioning training from The Matrix, I don't know… Just being a bit sportive in our world doesn't weight for much here, grr… But then again, I guess he just chose the easy way and gave me a Devil Fruit – a nonsensical and way too powerful one, too… Not his usual work, hum… So I guess it means he never took my presence in this world seriously or he would have chiselled my 'OC' way better: I don't know if I should feel depressed or angry about that…_

"In any case, we're only going to infiltrate and recognize the place until our three idiots are back…" said Nami, pulling back Fuu from her thoughts.

"In that case, there is something interesting me on this side." announced Robin while pointing at a very huge room on their left, "Please keep on without me: I'll try and find some useful information on the source of the Queen's power meanwhile."

And Robin walked away towards the aforementioned high-ceiling room, letting her four other crewmates look at each other with depressed expression.

"Robin-chan… Don't be so cold with me…" cried Sanji with a pitiful doggy expression.

"Even Robin is abandoning us…" exclaimed Chopper with a worried expression, more and more drops of cold sweats running down his face.

Even Nami had gulped down with an apprehensive glance for the back of Robin drawing away.

_Oh my, and one fighter less in our group, now… _inwardly sighed Fuu with a look for the three others, _I shouldn't have made this promise… Definitely… Or rather, I shouldn't have made this promise knowing that it could turn sour as long as it involved Luffy's and the others orientation sense!_

"Well, then let's just try to localize the Queen, so that we will be able to give some precious information to our three lost sheep when they will be coming back…" proposed Fuu while pointing at the corridor leading towards the Courtroom.

"Yep, we're going to make a DISCREET infiltration mission!" nodded Nami.

"And a SILENT one!" added Chopper.

"Then it's decided!" said Sanji while taking the lead of the group, in case they would encounter bad guys wanting to hurt his precious damsels.

_Tsk, Luffy… Where are you at such a time? Baka…! _thought Nami while repressing her concern.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, ROYAL KITCHENS**

"Great!" jumped with joy Luffy upon arriving in the room, "I was right to follow this good smell!"

And while already salivating, he pounced on the tables and the cupboards, rummaging everywhere in the kitchen, his cheeks inflating at each new food he was encountering.

He was now sitting cross-legged on a table, chewing what the black hole he had as a mouth had allowed him to stock in, when a little group of ten ice warriors entered the kitchen and surrounded him.

They were looking just like the Royal Guards, except that their ice armour was red and not blue. After a short silence, one of them stepped forward to face the pirate.

"Our Queen doesn't approve of your alliance with Aslan: if you do not change side, you will have to die!" announced the one who seemed to be the Commandant of the battalion on an icy and monochord tone.

But Luffy wasn't even listening, entirely dedicated to savour his food. His expressionless eyes were still looking in the direction of the Red Guards but without him really focusing on them.

_Hum… They look like the soldiers Ace and me crushed at the entrance… _thought he still without seeming to focus on the Commandant.

The latter took the lack of reaction from Luffy as a blatant answer, and instructed his troop to attack.

Ten red ice spears rushed towards the inflated-by-all-the-food belly of Luffy. They of course rebounded on it instantly before falling on the floor with a metallic crash. If the lifeless armours had had emotions, their jaws would have unhooked of stupefaction.

"Ouch! But it hurts!" cried Luffy, tears tinkling in the corners of his eyes, "No one has told you it's not polite to bother someone eating?"

And Luffy quickly gulped down all the food left in his mouth before jumping on his feet, really on his nerves.

"Gear… Third!" called he while biting his thumb to inflate air into it.

The Red Guards had understood their target was preparing to counterattack and draw their ice swords to point them in his direction.

But they couldn't avoid what was coming their way: Luffy had jumped towards the high ceiling, the air inside his body swiftly changing its direction to go and grow another member of his body.

"Gomu Gomu no… Gigant Stamp!" shouted Luffy while smashing the Red Guards on the ground in a thunder of frosty dust, the kitchen ice tiles denting deeply under the impact.

Not a single guard escaped the slaughter, while Luffy was landing in Chibi form next to the remnants of the ten red ice armours.

He nearly instantly retrieved his normal size and straightened his straw hat on his head, before suddenly punching in his hand as if he had just remembered something.

"NO!" yelled Luffy while taking his head in his hands as if he had realised what he had forgotten, "I forgot to ask them the way to the Queen!"

SHIN. Silence welcomed the hard realisation of Luffy.

"Hum, too bad…" calmly concluded Luffy while retrieving his usual stern expression, "I'll try… this way!"

And Luffy walked towards a corridor on his right, but not without taking in his pockets several pieces of meat before leaving the kitchens.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, MAIN HALL**

"If we keep on going straight ahead, we should reach the Royal Courtroom, and we could make it certain that the Queen is there or not." said Nami while turning towards Fuu when they reached a crossing of corridors.

"I think I remember so, too… But Nami, we'd better not enter the courtroom through the main door is the Queen really is inside…" hesitated Fuu while looking worriedly at the two choices displaying before them.

"I… it's true…" remarked Chopper while beginning to shudder, "Luffy, Zoro and Ace had not came back yet, so…"

"Don't worry, my two goddesses! I'll protect you from all harm!" claimed Sanji while twirling around Nami and Fuu, making the two girls sigh with resignation.

_I can admit Sanji can really act like a knight in shining armour when he feels like it, but… it's precisely this gallant side of him that would be a problem if we were to confront directly the Queen… He had no trouble to send flying and crush the Royal Guards with deadly kicks, but… _considered Fuu at the thought of the ice soldiers they had met on their way, and which had ended up in minced meat under the 'Extra Haché' attack of Sanji.

Fuu glanced at her blond nakama with a worried expression, and she saw Nami seeming as much concerned about their gentleman. She shot a look at her and they both nodded.

"Lateral entrance?" asked Fuu in a rhetorical tone.

"Lateral entrance!" confirmed Nami with a conniving expression.

"Well, I vaguely remember the configuration of the Royal Courtroom." reported Fuu, her mind on her chin while searching her memory, "It was disposed as the central nave of a cathedral, so there should be lateral aisles, just before the flight of stairs leading to the Queen's throne…"

"Right! I remember the feeling of airstream coming from the right and the left…" added Nami, also trying to remember the disposition of the room, "Knowing that air currents move from smaller corridors into wider spaces like this courtroom, it means the aisles are not annexed alcoves, but open passages!"

"So if we take the right corridor here… she should be able to get round the main entrance…" estimated Fuu.

"And if we turn once more on the left after a couple hundred metres, it should bring us back to the courtroom, but through lateral entrances…" pursued Nami.

"Distances seems right to me…" validated Fuu.

"Nami-swan, Fuu-chwan, you're heavenly smart…" marvelled Sanji, his eyes in heart-shape and his body liquefied of admiration if front or the architectural discussion between his two goddesses.

"Sure, sure…" sighed Nami while keeping the cook out of reach with the palm of her hand.

_How can Sanji be dead serious when attacking battalions of Royal Guards and be ironically foolish when he's speaking to us, just a few minutes after that? And how come 'heavenly smart': that was basic geometry!_

And Fuu smiled at the little show between the love-cook and his goddess-navigator. But the smile fainted away quickly, and she glanced back in the corridor behind them with a worried sigh.

"Fuu, what is wrong?" asked Chopper to his nakama, "I think it's a great plan, what Nami and you have said about spying on the Queen… So why don't you seem happy?"

"Well… It's indeed a good infiltration plan, but avoiding the direct path won't help our three idiots to reunite with us…" mumbled Fuu while thinking about the one able to retrace his own steps on a straight line, the one always following straight lines without caring where they were going, and the one not caring about going it alone and just waiting to meet back with everyone by chance.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, THREE DIFFERENT PLACES**

"Achaaaaa!" chimed in unison the sneezes of the three aforementioned idiots.


	19. Story IV, Quest, Dragon

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

…

Fate of a Sacred Creature, Fire VS. Ice

…

**FIMBUL, ICE PALACE, BASEMENT**

"Hum?" wondered Ace upon finally leaving the dungeons corridors.

He was now standing at the entrance of an immense cavern with walls of icy rock. It seemed to be part of the basement, but its ceiling was lost out of sight at several dozens of metres of height.

"Where did I end up?" muttered he while letting his eyes getting accustomed to the darkness surrounding him.

He then gazed at the long alley on his left. The corridor was bordered by rooms closed with ice bars, and each of the frosty cells was occupied by a fantastic creature: unicorn, minotaur, nymph…

_They should be the leaders of the people of this Kingdom… _thought Ace while remembering what the griffin leader had said during their meeting at the inn.

"These bars bring back awful memories…" screeched he between his teeth, the scene of the creatures prisoned here layering on his how-so-fresh memories of Impel Down.

Ace cautiously touched the bluish walls made of ice, a bit afraid of getting electrocuted like Fuu and Marco had been back in their apartments against the Queen's magical barrier, but nothing similar happened.

_Good… _thought he with a grin, before lighting his fist with intense orange flames.

"Kagero!" called Ace while sending a stream of fire against the wall of the cell where a pegasus was held captive.

The bars received the discharge at full power and melted in a few seconds, startling the prisoner.

_My Devil Fruit is decidedly very useful in this Ice world… _thought Ace while repressing a satisfied smile and pushing up the border of his hat with his still-enflamed index.

"My apologies for disrupting your stay here. My name is Portgas D. Ace." introduced himself the Second Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet while bowing very politely, "I'm afraid things are currently in an uproar in this Kingdom."

"You are… a Son of Adam?" exclaimed the winged horse, flabbergasted.

"Correct!" answered Ace with a confident grin for the pegasus whose forehead was adorned by an amethyst, "Your King has asked us to lend him a hand…"

"Aslan has begun the war against the White Witch?" bellowed the white-furred minotaur in the nearby cell.

"He's currently in the village downhill, fighting against the Royal Guards army." reported Ace with a neutral tone.

A whisper spread quickly from cell to cell, like a rustle of stupefaction mixed with excitement and apprehension.

"If King Aslan is fighting, my people need to support him…" thought out loud the pegasus, seeming deeply concerned about the news.

"I think that all assistance will be welcome, indeed…" answered Ace with a calm smile.

"Have you come to free us from these dungeons for this reason?" asked an emerald-haired nymph from behind the bars of her cell, her eyes shining with hope and gratefulness.

_Hum… Seems like a pretty good idea, while I'm at it… _thought Ace while sizing up the number of cells, _Besides, I think I've taken prisons in horror, recently!_

"Sure, if everyone could amiably step away from the doors…" warned Ace with his usual polite tone.

All the fantastic creatures obeyed and waited to see what could be planning the Son of Adam.

"Hiken!" called Ace while sending a fire fist graze the line of ice walls, making all the bluish frozen doors melt at passing.

"WOW!" marvelled all the prisoners while stepping out from their lockups with ecstatic expressions.

"If you take this corridor, you will reach the stairs leading to the entrance gate of the Palace." explained Ace while pointing at the passage he had been coming from, sending another swarm of green-flamed fireflies lighten the way.

Everyone was still gaping in admiration at this new proof of power when Ace turned back towards the pegasus leader.

"All the Royal Guards along the way and at the entrance have been destroyed, but the ice bridge leading to the other part of the mountain is missing." reported he with a serious expression, "But I'm sure you and your people will be able to help everyone safely across the precipice."

"Most certainly! We will be equal to the task you entrusted us." affirmed the amethyst pegasus with a short reverence.

"Our people will be eternally grateful for your help." added the diamond unicorn while kneeling down to pay her respect to the one who had delivered them.

"You are a Hero, Son of Adam!" chimed in the emerald-haired nymph, before also thanking Ace with a soft kiss on his cheek, "My people will sing your exploits for the centuries to come!"

And on these goodbyes, the fantastic creatures left through the passage enlighten by Ace's 'Hotarubi'.

_Oups… Hopefully, Fuu didn't see that… _thought Ace while brushing his cheek under his fingers, at the place where still lingered the nymph's kiss sensation.

And he suddenly felt his cheeks becoming way redder than usual and cursed himself mentally: _Tsk, I'm an idiot! We're not a couple: she said it herself! So why would she be jealous over something like that?_

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, MAIN HALL**

"Aaaaachiii…" softly sneezed Fuu.

"Fuu-chan! Did you catch a cold?" exclaimed Sanji, his expression a mixture of concern and perverted delight, "Do you need me to warm you up? Body heat is definitely the best in these kind of situation: a word, a sign, and I'll be all yours!"

BONG. Nami's fist had rung on the head of their love-cook.

"Idiot!" ranted she, a vein bulging on her temple.

She then turned towards her nakama with alarm.

"Fuu, are you okay? Is it the after-effect of using your power, as Luffy has told us?" asked she with a worried look.

"No, not at all…" answered Fuu, a bit surprised by Nami's conjecture.

"For real?" suspiciously questioned Nami while arching an eyebrow.

"Of course!" insisted Fuu with a smile.

"Do you want me to examine you?" asked Chopper with a seemingly worried expression, "Maybe the pill effect is wearing off…"

"No, it's not that…" reassured Fuu with still an apprehension at the thought of the pill effect potentially disappearing soon and her exhaustion catching her back, "And I didn't catch a cold either…"

"Hum…" paused Chopper with a sulking expression.

"Then," pursued Nami with a sudden cunning smile spreading on her lips, "Someone must be speaking about you!"

"Huh?" wondered Fuu while bending her head on the side in a perplexed expression.

_Talking about me? Because I sneezed? Is there a sign like that in the Japanese culture?_

"Yep, someone who is probably concerned about you…" added Nami with a teasing expression for her clueless nakama.

_And I have a pretty good idea of who it might be… _thought Nami while her grin was growing more amused.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, BASEMENT CAVERN**

Ace was gazing at the wide and dark ice grotto in front of him.

"So… where am I heading now?" wondered he while massaging his neck.

He looked up at the ceiling: at some sixty metres from the ground, he could see Fimbul's starry sky glittering through the translucent roof of bluish ice.

_Too high… On that one, Fuu's wings would have been quite useful… _thought he before stopping abruptly his train of thoughts and shaking his head from left to right, _Stupid! What the hell am I thinking? She's in no fit shape to use her power! And besides, since when am I counting on someone – on a girl – to pull me out of a pitfall? Grr, so not like me…_

Ace finally stopped his battle with himself and glanced left and right.

_I came here because I had felt a powerful presence, but it fainted away, tsk…_

"Hotarubi." called once more Ace while sending his fireflies-flames lighten the ice cavern and determine its perimeter.

_Hey?_

Ace had caught sight of an immense silhouette at the bottom of the grotto. The lying shadow was four or five metres high and was inflating and deflating at the rhythm of a slow breathing.

_What the hell is that?_

Ace cautiously drew closer, until being only a couple of metres away from the mysterious creature, and his eyes widened when he saw what was sleeping in front of him.

Its wings folded on its back as would do a seagull resting on a ship mast, the huge silver-scaled reptile was apparently taking a nap, though hobbled by heavy chains riveted to the walls of the cavern.

"A… Dragon?" mumbled Ace in a whisper, while remembering the recent conversation around the fire and Robin's description.

_I understand why this cavern is so huge, now…_ thought he while gazing at the already-huge-despite-his crouching-position creature.

The slow breathing suddenly stopped, and Ace's eyes wandered towards the reptile's head.

The now-awake Dragon was contemplating the human, staring at him with its garnet pupils.

Seconds slowly flew by, Ace upholding its stare.

The Dragon then huddled up with a menacing growl and opened wide its mouth: a sphere of icy wind started accumulating between its fangs, the fantastic creature ready to send an ice attack to the intruder who had made irruption in the cavern.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you…" warned Ace on a calm tone, but his aura getting charged with threatening warnings.

The Dragon gazed at the human, and several seconds more flew silently on the scene.

Then, the creature calmly closed his mouth, stifling the attack it had been ready to launch. It stared at Ace, as if to sound him out, its garnet eyes glittering with an intense flame of intelligence and wisdom.

Ace didn't move an inch and gazed straightforwardly at the Dragon, and he finally saw his opponent abandoning his menacing position and resuming his nap position.

"Hum…" smiled Ace with a faint nodding expression.

TILT. WhiteBeard's Second Commander briskly lifted his head towards the gallery running above the Dragon's den, searching for the aggressive presence he had suddenly felt.

"What do you think yourself allowed to do, Ice Dragon? Our Queen ordered you to kill any intruder! No exception will be tolerated: why did you stop your attack? I order you to kill this Human!" rose a frosty masculine voice.

Ace narrowed his eyes and glared at the one who had spoken: a fantastic creature mid-human mid-ice panther with the build of a trained warrior was standing in the dimly lit darkness. He reminded him of a Zoan on his terminal form, even if Ace could tell it wasn't a Devil Fruit user he had in front of his eyes.

On his side, the Dragon merely turned his head towards the one standing on the gallery and shot a calm yet resolved look at the panther-hybrid, seemingly not disposed to obey his order.

"Oh? You dare and rebel against this order?" screeched the ice panther, "You perfectly know that you have no such liberty!"

And the hybrid swiftly jumped from the gallery to land right on the neck of the Ice Dragon. He seized the silver reins harnessing the creature and activated them, liberating the spell casted by Queen Jadis that was giving control over the Dragon to anyone using this bridle.

BAM. In a flash of magic, the four heavy chains fell on the ground in a loud noise of metal, freeing the Dragon from his shackles.

Ace clenched his fists at seeing the fantastic creature stood up in fighting position.

"I don't know how you managed to come her, Human, but our Queen wish to see you dead, you and your companions… and her desires are orders!" claimed the panther-warrior while making the mouth of the Dragon turn towards Ace.

"Tsk…" ranted Ace while jumping on the side to dodge the fangs of the creature coming after him.

The ballet of the Dragon's fangs and Ace's avoiding them lasted a couple of rounds, under the chiming sadistic laugh of the panther-hybrid.

"Ice Dragon: Ice Blast!" called the Queen's minion while pulling on the silver reins when seeing an opening in Ace's reflexes.

The Dragon opened its mouth, and the sphere of icy air accumulating inside it quickly took the shape of a deadly powerful frosting discharge.

"Kyokahen!" called Ace while building up a mirror of flames around him.

The fire withered the ice, but the strength of the gust at such low distance still sent him flying backward in the sizzling crackle of the ice dust getting devoured by the flames of the protection wall.

"Grr…" roared Ace while staring at his opponent after having re-established his position.

"Oh?" whistled the panther-warrior with an amused expression bordering on the sadism, "It would seem that this human have some tricks up his sleeve… A magic of fire, hum? Ice Dragon: Thorn Whip!"

The Dragon moaned a pitiful complaining roar but complied under the constraints of the reins order. Its long pointed tail run like lightning towards Ace and forcefully pierced him right though his chest.

"Perfect…" grinned the panther-warrior, "The Queen will be pleased to hear that already one of these humans is out of her way…"

"You should stop your little tricks…" rose a masculine voice.

TILT. The panther-hybrid instantly stopped grinning and stared at his opponent in disbelief.

"Come down to fight like a man!" warned Ace in a provocative smile, the wound caused by the Dragon's tail closing down in a crackle of flames.

"Wh…?" exclaimed the panther-warrior at seeing Ace's bare and unharmed chest through the hole in his pierced white shirt.

"Shinka: Shiranui!" called Ace while materializing flames in his hand and throwing a spear of sacred fire straight at his still-dumbfounded opponent.

But the ice panther reacted quickly and pulled on the silver reins to force his mount right between him and the fire spear.

And the Ice Dragon moaned a rattle of pain when the spear sunk deeply in his neck, under the revolted and bitter expression of the Second Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet.

"Bastard…!" roared Ace between his teeth, while getting in position to counterattack.

"Ice Dragon: Hail Storm!" called the panther-warrior while pulling once more on the silver bridle.

"Tsk!" ranted Ace while raising his eyes towards the ceiling where the new magic was gathering.

A mass of huge needle-shaped hailstones was starting to accumulate above his head, under the call of the Dragon's magic.

"Enkai…" called Ace while building up flames in circles around him, "Hibashira!"

A column of fire rose from the concentric circles and dashed towards the heights, melting the major part of the still-forming hailstones in the process. A major part but not all, unfortunately… And before Ace could distinguish what was still waiting for him in the fog of pulverized melted ice:

"Die!" shouted the panther-warrior while bringing down the reins, forcing the Dragon to release his tempest of hailstones on the human facing him.

The ice needles beat down on Ace, crackling in a twirl of flames and ice dust.

The panther-warrior watched with evident satisfaction at the thick smoke coming from the remnants of fire and ice, smoke rising from where was most certainly the now dead body of his opponent.

"Behind you…" roared a voice behind the ice panther, followed by a huge burning pain.

Ace had sent a flaming punch in the low back of the panther-warrior.

"Urgh!" moaned the Queen's minion while releasing from one hand the Dragon's reins to draw his sabre and counter-attack.

But the swing only cut emptiness: Ace had already jumped back at the Dragon's feet and was looking up and down at his opponent with an irritating arrogant smile.

"I told you: just climb down from here and come and fight!" announced he with a menacing tone.

The face of the panther-hybrid was twisted with anger and panic at realizing the human was still alive. But his expression relaxed a bit at seeing that if Ace was alive, he wasn't unharmed: numerous scars were now spreading on his bare chest and arms, the wounds received by the ice needles having closed down in a crackle of Logia regenerating flames, but still leaving deep frostbites marks on his skin.

The panther-warrior grinned evilly.

"Why would I?" provoked he with an arrogant smile, "I don't need to come down to massacre you: this worthless animal is more than enough for taking care of you!"

And he pulled harder on the Dragon's reins, making the creature howl a pitiful moan of pain.

Ace's eyes hardened.

"Ice Dragon: Ice Blast!" ordered the panther-warrior while pointing his own sabre of blue ice towards his target.

Ace clenched his fists on seeing the prisoned dragon complying with the order and furiously countered with a 'Hiken'. The stream of devastator fire leaving his fist exploded against the discharge of freezing wind belched out by the Ice Dragon.

The two powers collided and fought each other for long seconds, sometimes losing ground, sometimes overcoming the other, but they ended up destroying each other in a titanic sphere of incandescent light.

"Hail Storm!" immediately pursued the panther-warrior with another pull on the silver reins, his sadistic laugh lost in the wake of the previous devastator attack.

Ace only had time enough to cross his arms in front of his face to protect himself from the shower of ice needles that fell once more on him.

Numerous scars added themselves to the ones he had already received, the blades of ice melting away in the flames of his body but always letting hard frostbites.

_Tsk… These damned ice scalds! _thought Ace while clenching his teeth at the pain of the burn marks spreading through his entire body.

"Jujika!" called he while crossing his two indexes in cross-shape in front of him and aiming at the chest of the panther-hybrid.

A cross-shaped ray of light emanated from his fingers and locked on the target, soon followed by a column of fire which deeply burnt Ace's opponent, making the panther-warrior let go of the Ice Dragon's reins to grab his chest and try to get rid of the devouring fire.

_Now… _thought Ace while swiftly jumping towards his opponent.

With a quick rotating kick, he made the panther-warrior lose his balance, before throwing him to the ground with an elbow hit on the neck.

Ace then assembled fire in his fist and launched a violent discharge towards the panther-hybrid, pushing him far away from the Dragon.

In a nimble jump, he himself got down from the Ice Dragon and resumed his battling position, waiting to see if his opponent had survived the hit or not.

"Humph… Humans are really irritating creatures!" screeched the panther-warrior while slowly getting back on his feet and wiping away the trickle of black blood from his lips, "I will have to make you disappear by myself!"

"Don't come and complain I didn't warn you…" answered Ace on a cool tone but his eyes as dark as the steel, "You should have come down since the beginning… Now, I'm quite pissed off!"

The panther-warrior stared at his opponent with a slightly puzzled opponent. Ace glared back at him, and finally shot a quick worried look for the fire spear still dug into the Ice Dragon's neck. He cautiously lifted one arm out of his guard position and repatriated the flames back in his hand.

The panther-hybrid's eyes widened in disbelief at seeing his human opponent giving a faint smile at the silver-scaled reptile.

"What exactly do you think you are doing?" asked he, both perplexed and annoyed, "Could it be pity?"

"None of that…" retorted Ace with still the same resolved expression.

"Besides, if I remember correctly, you have never attacked directly this worthless creature…" pursued the panther-warrior with a disgusted and doubtful expression.

Ace's eyes hardened upon hearing the comment but chose not to answer. His opponent then shot a glance at the Ice Dragon behind him.

"Could you have focused all of your attack on me on purpose…?" tried the ice panther as if not understanding the logic behind such a supposition, "Why would you?"

Ace raised an eyebrow in a provocative expression and displayed his most annoying confident smile.

"I don't think I need to justify that… especially to someone like you!" mocked he in a very arrogant expression, "Though if you want at least one reason, let me tell you there is a girl who deeply respect this Ice Dragon… and I wouldn't want her to hate me for having hurt it!"

"Nonsense!" shouted the panther-warrior while dusting away the remark with a quick gesture from his hand, "This creature is merely a magic reservoir for our Queen! If it had only been my decision, it would have been long since we had gotten rid of it…"

"Then it's fortunate it's not only your decision…" thundered Ace while clenching his fists in rage.

"For such a stupid reason?" exclaimed the panther-hybrid while still looking at his opponent with a disbelieving expression, "You are in that state because of such a senseless reason…? Then be ready to die for it!"

And the panther-warrior dashed towards his opponent, his bluish ice sabre armed. Ace barely dodged, utterly surprised by the superhuman speed his opponent had attacked with, and the sabre of blue ice grazed his right shoulder.

_What? _tilted Ace, dumbfounded, upon looking at the wound.

Despite him using his Logia ability to counter the attack, the blade hadn't gone through his body but had cut him. The cut had then instantly frozen, before exploding in a myriad of ice fragments under the pressure of Ace's regenerating flames, leaving a hurtful frostbite on his shoulder.

_Tsk! _groaned the Second Commander of WhiteBeard while clenching his teeth, _These ice attacks seriously begin to get on my nerves…!_

"Hum…" had smirked the panther-warrior upon noticing the impact of his attack.

And he began throwing several more launches at Ace with a sadistic smile.

"Kyokahen!" called Ace while pushing away his opponent with a moving wall of fire.

But the panther-hybrid had nimbly jumped backward, dodging the mirror of flames which had managed to counter his sabre hits.

"Higan!" called Ace while pointing his fingers in revolver-shape at his opponents and firing flames bullets in his direction.

But the panther-warrior was too fast, even for Ace, and he had no trouble avoiding the discharge. Amidst the deafening noise of the 'Higan' shots, he run in quadrant around Ace, before dashing towards him by the right side and jump above him, targeting the creature in his back.

"As if I would let you do that again, bastard!" roared Ace at immediately understanding his attempt to control the Ice Dragon again and use it to his advantage, "Enjomo!"

A wall of high flames surrounded the Dragon, protecting it from being controlled again by the panther-warrior. But the latter didn't seem bothered by the interference: he switched to his alternative strategy.

Changing direction in mid-air, he twisted his body and dived towards Ace to impale him with his sabre. WhiteBeard's Second Commander couldn't entirely avoid it, and the ice blade left a deep wound on his left leg.

Ace swallowed back a cursing word: before he had had the chance to counterattack, the panther-warrior had resumed his position out of reach, distancing himself in a few jumps.

"Humph…" snorted the Queen's minion, "You truly are pathetic! Getting hurt once more just to protect this worthless creature… What interest could there be for you to save it? Are you not a fire user? You should be enemies by birth…"

"Sorry, but this kind of… prejudices… don't really touch me…" retorted Ace with a frosty glare, "After all, it had been proclaimed some time ago that I was 'enemy by birth' of the entire world, just because of the blood running in my veins… So adding an Ice Dragon to that or not…"

_However… _thought he with a smile springing on his lips.

"However," retorted he with a softer voice and eyes shining with determination, "There is someone in this same world that I do not wish to disappoint… a baka caring for the life of others and worrying about the equilibrium of magic on these lands…"

"Tsk…" smirked the panther-warrior, "You are nonetheless going to disappoint her… by dying!"

And he dashed towards Ace, his sabre in a horizontal stance and aiming straight at his opponent's heart.

"Hiken!" countered Ace while sending a violent column of fire at him.

The powerful deflagration bounced on the blade of the panther-warrior, who tumbled back a few steps under the shock, but didn't seem affected more than that.

He nimbly landed on his feet, pulling himself up nearly instantly, and dashed once more towards Ace, lacerating his forearms of new frostbiting cuts before resuming his position far away in the back.

_Grr… That damned coward is distancing himself has soon as he has landed a hit… Cautiously and efficiently… And even if it sucks to admit it, my speed is not up to his level! Who cares if I'm stronger: my firepower is useless if I can't touch him… _thought Ace while looking at his barely-hit opponent.

The fire wall isolating the Dragon was starting to grind along Ace's endurance, and WhiteBeard's Second Commander couldn't help shooting a worried look in his direction, mentally weighting what his remaining options would cost him.

The situation stayed on a stand-still during long seconds.

"Enkai…" finally called Ace, spreading his flames on the ground of the frozen rocky ground of the cavern.

The panther-warrior stared apprehensively at the flames, tightening his guard and cautiously eyeing Ace. But his expression suddenly crumbled into a flabbergasted face when he saw all the fire accumulated suddenly evaporating into small green bubbles of light resembling fireflies.

"Hotarubi…" had whispered Ace, his two hands slowly guiding the 'fireflies'.

Ace raised his eyes out of the shadow of his hat and watched at the green flying flames floating closer towards his target.

"Hidaruma!" called her fiercely, making the flames instantly converge towards the panther-warrior and set him in fire.

"Urgh!" yelled his opponent in a scream of surprise while patting his fur in panic to try and deaden the fire.

Ace glanced back briefly behind his back and winced at seeing that his little show had definitely made the shield of flames disappear from around the Dragon.

_I'll have to cope with it… _thought he in a sigh.

But he suddenly realised a combative aura had emerged in his perimeter and swiftly turned around, barely in time to counter the sabre of blue ice falling his way.

"Impressive, I am unfortunately obliged to confess…" admitted the panther-warrior in a screech, his white fur having turned black, burnt by Ace's last attack.

And he reinforced the pressure in his sabre, digging it more deeply into Ace's right palm – who had seized the sword bare-handedly to avoid having his neck cut by the lateral attack of his opponent.

"Urgh!" yielded Ace under the pain, the frostbite in his hand irradiating more and more strongly in the rest of his body.

He tried to make the weapon melt, but as against his 'Hiken', the sabre didn't seem to fear his flames.

The twist of the panther-warrior's sadistic smile grew bigger at seeing the moan on his opponent's face, and he inflicted once again more pressure on his hit.

Ace clenched his teeth and lowered his eyes under the shadows of his hat. He then slowly raised his left hand towards the chest of the panther-hybrid, while firmly grabbing the sabre into his right palm to prevent him from pulling back.

"Kagero!" called Ace while sending a powerful stream of fire into his opponent.

The panther-warrior flew several metres backward under the devastating pressure of flames, leaving his sabre in Ace's hand in the process.

Ace threw the sword of blue ice in his back, out of reach from his opponent, and resumed his battling position. He was doing his best to forget the pain and the effects of the frostbites scarring his body – and more especially the one in his right hand. His breathing was jerky, and he already had to keep all his focus just to be able to stand straight.

Since his fight against BlackBeard and his stay at Impel Down, there had been no occasion during which his Logia regeneration powers had been useless; and even if he was naturally tough, his animal opponent had a better resistance and Ace knew that he will end up at a disadvantage if the fight was drawing longer.

_Okay… Now that he doesn't have a weapon anymore, I should be able to endure his attacks better… And to find an opening, if I manage to follow his moves, that is… _inwardly smiled Ace, between two panting breaths.

But it was too soon to say – think – it: the panther-warrior had gotten back on his feet and had unsheathed from his back two Wakizashis of blue ice, glaring at Ace with eyes corrupted with rage.

_Tell me it's a joke! He still has weapons left… and two of them on top of that… I think I have some definitely rotten luck… _tilted Ace while staring at the two daggers which seemed to be of the same ice fabric as the previous blue sabre – and thus could also counter his Logia ability.

And while Ace was still wondering how to get rid of these two new problems, the panther-warrior dashed furiously at him – even more quickly than previously.

In a tempest of hits that resembled a deathly dance, he hammered Ace with dagger strikes. The latter had barely enough time left to avoid lethal hits, and he quickly ended up covered with frostbite scars.

"Hiken!" roared Ace while sending a powerful column of fire towards his opponent.

But the panther-warrior easily dodged the attack with an arrogant smile on his face. He then quickly changed his direction to avoid another fire stream from Ace and attacked him by using the opening the Second Commander of WhiteBeard had revealed when attacking.

The new frostbiting cut irradiated in Ace's entire body.

_Grr… It's like fighting against water current… _panted Ace while staring at his opponent who was playing with him thanks to his fantastic speed and agility, _The more I'm trying to dodge and counter, the more I fall into his rhythm and leave openings, tsk…_

"So, Human…" mocked the ice panther with a victorious grin on his face, "Do you start regretting not to have let yourself be torn to shreds by my dragon?"

"I don't remember Dragons being anyone's property…" retorted Ace without avoiding his eyes from his opponent, "It's pretty pathetic from you to imagine that you are its master just because your Witch has built up some little magic stuff to force him to obey you! Dragons are creatures meant to be dignified and free!"

That comment upset the panther-warrior to no point, but he forced himself to calm down and didn't draw closer to Ace's perimeter.

_Looks like my provocation didn't work… _sighed Ace, a bit disappointed.

"Humph, once I would have gotten rid of you, I will just have to control it once more to deprive it from its… dignity!" screeched the panther-warrior while slowly turning around Ace, still in guard position, "So just let yourself killed quietly!"

"Sorry, no can do!" answered Ace with a very provocative smile.

"Then it will just have to be less quietly…" roared his opponent while dashing towards Ace, his two ice daggers ready to accomplish another dance.

"Enjomo!" countered Ace, the wall of flames preventing his opponent to come closer.

The ice panther cautiously stopped in front of the shield and smirked evilly.

"You talk way too much for someone settling only for defence!" mocked the panther-warrior while carefully patrolling around the fire wall, watching out for the moment at which Ace will disperse his protection.

_Tsk… It annoys me but he's right… Still, I need some time to think about a strategy: I can't just fire flames at him without a care if he just easily dodges them… I would have to manage and immobilize him, be it for a brief moment… _thought Ace while clenching his fists, his eyes following his opponent's moves across the screen of flames.

But the sound of wind suddenly chimed into the cavern.

Both dumbfounded, Ace and his opponent raised their eyes towards the source of the icy gust that had invaded the grotto: the Ice Dragon had casted a huge snow tempest.

The white twister rose above Ace's fire wall and flew towards the panther-warrior, fatally attracting him in the eye of the storm under the pulling forces of the snowy winds.

_Wh…? t_hought Ace, stunned to see his opponent paling at the sight of the freezing tempest coming his way.

Despite his tentative for trying and run away from it, the panther-hybrid got pulled into the trajectory of the twister, which froze his feet to the ground in a thick shackle of white ice.

"Wow! Nice attack, Dragon-san!" whistled Ace in admiration with a conniving look for the Ice Dragon in his back.

The panther-warrior had started to shake his members desperately, but in vain: he was solidly riveted to the ground, unable to move.

"I hope you won't mind," pursued Ace with a malicious grin for the Dragon, "But I will need to make this snow melt…"

The Ice Dragon gazed at Ace, his garnet eyes shining with an approving glow, before calmly crouching on the floor, as if to signify him to do as he wished.

"You have my thanks…" smiled Ace with a malicious expression before counter-attacking: "Dai Enkai!"

He bend over, putting his hand on the ground and amassing flames in a gigantic fire whirl around him.

"Entei!" called Ace while lifting on his left hand the immense sphere of white hot fire resembling a sun.

"Wait, Human! We could… we could reach an arrangement…" mumbled the panther-warrior, completely panicking at seeing Ace's merciless look pinned on him, the titanic fire ball awaiting to meet its target, "What would you say about eternally reigning on this Kingdom? I am certain our Queen would see no objection in taking someone as powerful as you for companion… You could become King!"

"Rejected!" coolly answered Ace with a contemptuous smile, "There's already someone waiting for me… and together, we promised to make the sun shine again on this island!"

And Ace launched his 'sun' of flames towards his opponent, grilling the snow shackles at the same time as his target, the ground of the cavern denting in a myriad of rock and ice particles under the shock.

"Be honoured, you've been the first one to feel the warmth of this new sun!" smiled Ace while straightening his hat back on his head and turning back from his opponent – who couldn't hear him anymore.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, MAIN HALL**

Fuu suddenly stopped running and turned back to glance behind her with a troubled expression.

"Have you heard a rumble, just now…? And also felt like a soft wave of warmth…" asked Fuu in low voice, as if speaking to herself.

"Hum…" mumbled Nami and Chopper while putting one of their hands on Fuu's forehead and the other on their own head to compare their temperatures.

"Hey, I don't have any fever!" retorted Fuu, deeply vexed.

"Fuu-chan, have you really caught a cold?" wondered Sanji, a bit more serious than his usual love-love enquiries.

"Hum…" repeated Nami and Chopper, their hands still on Fuu's forehead.

"Oh, forget about it…" sulked Fuu while walking away from her nakamas's hands.

_I must be oversensitive…_

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, BASEMENT CAVERN**

"Done! You're free, now!" declared Ace in a smile.

And he burnt between his hands the silver bridle and reins that had kept the Dragon prisoner under the Witch's control for only-God-knows how long.

"You can leave and wander anywhere you want, but I still advice you not to leave this island." pursued Ace with a friendly smile, "On the rest of Grand Line, no one knows how precious the life of a Dragon is: so if you're not in luck, you will end up on someone like my little brother who will want to use you as food supply, heehee…"

The Ice Dragon was still sounding Ace out, intensively gazing at him with his garnet eyes.

Ace looked up at him in answer and heaved a little sigh.

"Fuu told us you are very precious and very wise… And well, you also did me quite a favour for getting rid of the other bastard… Thank you very much!" bowed very politely Ace as a thanks for the creature, "But it's a shame you do not speak, I would have asked you the way out…"

Ace was now surveying the huge ice cavern, scanning it from left to right. And he massaged his neck in a perplexed expression, honestly not having a clue about which direction to take to reunite with the others.

_Tsk, now that I know that this powerful presence was the Dragon and not the Queen… _thought he with a glance for the influential creature, _I can't help but worrying for Fuu and the others… This Baka-Otouto has better be doing his job and protecting her!_

But his train of thoughts stopped upon feeling a faint push on his back.

"Hum…" reacted Ace when turning back and seeing that the Ice Dragon had pressed his muzzle on his shoulder, "Do you need something else?"

By way of answer, the Dragon slowly crouched on the floor and waved his head several times towards his back, as if telling Ace to climb up.

"You want me to ride on your back?" asked Ace with a surprised tone, quite doubtful when remembering the disgusting warrior who had been mounting the Dragon a mere hour before, "Are you sure?"

But the Dragon satisfied itself with staring at Ace with his garnet eyes: some very determined garnet eyes.

"If you insist…" answered Ace while crooking a smile and digging his hat on his head.

And he softly jumped on the Dragon's back, sitting tight between the creature's neck and its huge silver-scaled wings.

_I will end up believing I have some affinity with lizards… _muttered Ace for himself while remembering his mount in Alabasta's desert with an amused smile.

The Dragon then huddled up and swiftly propelled itself in the air through wide flutters of wings.

It dashed towards the ceiling of translucent blue ice, destroying the obstacle with an ice blast.

Then, in a crackle of frosty broken glass, the Dragon and Ace shot off in the nightly sky, flying over the Ice Palace towers.


	20. Story IV, Quest, Puppets

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

…

Soul of the Blade, Swordsman VS. Puppets

…

**ICE PALACE, ROYAL APARTMENTS CORRIDOR**

Zoro was still nonchalantly walking along the passage bordering the royal suites. Upon arriving at a crossing, he trusted his instinct to lead him to his nakamas.

_Hum, right… _thought Zoro while taking the corridor on his right.

But Zoro's instinct – at least his orientation related one – wasn't up to the trust he had put in it, because it had been at this very same crossing that Nami, Sanji, Chopper and Fuu had turned several minutes before, but on the left.

And exactly as had estimated the two girls at the time, the right passage was leading straight to the entrance door of the Royal Courtroom.

"What's with that things?" mumbled Zoro while raising an eyebrow, staring at the two colossal statues of grey-bluish ice framing the high door, their huge swords in guard position straight in their armoured hands.

And as if to answer his question, the two guards started moving in a thumbing sound of rocky ice and blocked the way to the door by crossing their heavy swords in front of Zoro.

Zoro side-stepped, but the huge guards moved adequately and still denied him the access to the Royal Courtroom.

_Tsk, they're not going to get on my nerves for long, these ones… _thought Zoro while unsheathing one of his katana to attack the obstacle.

But the huge swords of bluish ice blocking his way remained unharmed, which made Zoro raise an eyebrow with an annoyed expression.

He thus drew his two other katanas and charged directly at one of the two colossal guards.

TILT. But Zoro's attention was called by something coming on his right, and he stopped his attack mid-way to counter a hit from the second guard.

He got blew up metres away from his targets but re-established his position in a couple of swift jumps, before dashing immediately again towards his first target.

"Tora Gari! » called Zoro while positioning his two hands above the katana in his mouth and attack his opponent with an ascending slash.

The gigantic armour of ice took the hit without flinching a bit. On the other side, the second Guard countered automatically and attacked Zoro from the flank, knocking him by the air movement dusted away with his huge ice sword.

_Grr… I didn't feel it coming! _groaned Zoro while clenching his teeth.

He dodged the biggest part of the attack with two of his katanas and rebounded to charge the opponent who had already got twice in his way.

_If you insist, I'm getting rid of you first! _thought Zoro while targeting the second Guard.

"Ushi Bari!" called Zoro, two of his two katanas positioned like the horns of a bull, hoping to make the heavy colossal statue of ice loose his balance under the strength of the hit.

But the colossus endured it as if it was nothing, while the first Guard synchronically smashed Zoro with his huge fist. The paving dented under the fists of the swordsman under the shockwave of the hit countered by his katanas.

_Urgh… _cringed Zoro under the blow.

TILT. Something caught his attention again, but he turned his head too late.

The fist of the second Guard attacked him from the side. He felt the wind being knocked off him. In a twister of dust and ice, Zoro crashed into the opposite wall.

_Tsk… If you take it that way! _thought Zoro while swiftly getting back on his feet.

He wiped away some blood from his lips and untied his bandanna from his arm to put it in place on his head.

_I don't have time to play with you!_

"Hyaku-Hachi Pound Ho!" called Zoro while raising his katanas at the level of his shoulders, initiating his circular technique.

Spirals of compressed air formed themselves and briskly flew towards the two huge animated statues of ice, drowning the corridor into a messy could of icy dust under the strength of the blow.

Zoro had hoped that this very powerful attack would damage the two lifeless armours blocking his way. But instead, surprise caught him when seeing two huge swords of blue ice dashing his way amidst the fog.

CRASH. Zoro got smashed against the wall of the corridor one more time, leaving a deep circular dent into the frosty rock.

_Grr… What the…? But just how powerful is this damned Witch to be able to master this kind of monsters…?_

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, ROYAL LIBRARY**

"Hum… So that's what it was!" mumbled Robin while putting back on the icy wooden shelf the thick and old book she had just finished consulting.

_If what I have been observing up until now is correct, the artefact giving the Queen her extraordinary ice power and what Fuu and her brother are looking for are one and only thing… _thought she with a faint smile.

And Robin calmly left the library to go and search for the rest of her nakamas, leaving behind a pile of ice armours disembodied by a couple of smart clutches.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, ENTRANCE DOORS OF THE ROYAL COURTROOM**

The swords fight between Zoro and the two huge ice Guards had already destroyed the main part of the corridor's paving and walls, but had left little imprint on the colossus. On the opposite side, Zoro was panting more and more.

The swordsman had been surprised to face opponents emitting no ki, and he had struggled to adapt his fighting style in consequence, abandoning his instinct and sixth sense to depend only on the five others. But on top of this already bothersome absence of fighting spirit inside the ice armours, they also had no need for communication before acting in synchronicity.

Zoro had seen them coordinating their defence and attack with utmost precision without a single gesture of any other kind of sign, and he perfectly knew it was a huge disadvantage for him in this battle.

"Hyo Kin Dama!" called he in a jump, twirling in mid-air and daunting to try and understand the rhythm of dodging of his opponents.

His attack reached one of the Guards, but the other was already charging the swordsman. The huge sword of blue ice slashed in Zoro's direction, the edge of the blade grazing the first statue by a few centimetres but dodging it very efficiently.

Zoro's eyes widened at realizing that his opponents have managed to counter him without even seeming bothered by avoiding one another attacks, and he clenched his teeth when seeing the counter-attack coming his way.

The first colossus had sent his huge bluish and frosty fist towards him a mere second after Zoro had dodged the sword's hit of the other Guard, already forecasting their enemy's range of action.

_Tsk… They complement each other… _thought Zoro in a bitter expression while landing abruptly on the corridor's floor and dodging in a swift jump the next punch coming his way.

"Tatsu Maki!" called Zoro while turning on himself to create a whirlwind resembling the rise of a dragon.

Zoro had bet on one of his most powerful techniques to make the difference in the momentum of the battle, and the effect was worth it: the ice amour of the huge statue hit by the attack had sizzled into several deep crackles, and the shock had prevented it to counter.

"Huf huf…" was heavily panting Zoro, the after-effect of the hits received from his opponents and the one from all the special techniques he had been obliged to use starting to pile up against his stamina.

But it was too early for him to let his garde down: the second colossus was charging him with his huge sword of blue ice.

"To Ro Nagashi!" called Zoro while countering the attack with two of his katanas while the third one was targeting what was – supposedly – the abdomen of his opponent.

Another special technique, even though he knew he won't be able to keep on relying on them for ever, but it was his only way to shake his enemies a bit.

Zoro landed less swiftly than usual on the ice floor and shot a glance at the two ice statues still implacably facing him and blocking his way.

_Tsk… No way for knowing if they're hurt, or even frightened… or tired! No way of reading their moves since they don't have fighting spirit, and no way of dealing with them individually! Even if they've got swords, their just empty armours automatically reacting to enemies… _ thought Zoro while narrowing his eyes at his lifeless opponents, _Humph! Swordsmen without souls are not worthy adversaries!_

Determined to get rid of the two ice armours as soon as possible, Zoro resumed his fighting position.

"Karasuma Gari!" called he while jumping very high, reaching the level of the first colossus' head.

And he began a succession of multiple aerial slashes.

But the Guard countered with his heavy blue sword, before sending Zoro flying towards the other statue with a heavy slap, knocking the wind out of the swordsman.

_To Ro Nagashi! _used again Zoro to re-establish his position on to the huge sabre of the other colossus, twirling around it to hammer a final hit at the joint just before the pieces of the armour surrounding the neck.

The ice Guard staggered a bit but without seeming tremendously shaken, and Zoro landed on the ground, out of reach and out of breath, to stare at his still standing – and in good-shape – opponents.

"Santoryu Ougi: Sanzen Sekai!" called Zoro, attacking with all his power, hoping that this technique he had only used for big occasions – like his fight against Mihawk – would have more impact than all the others.

CRRR. The whirls of his katanas cracked the ice armour of his target with large and deep sizzles, but without any hope of witnessing its real effect: the puppets of the Queen were showing no sign of exhaustion or weakness.

_Humph… _sulked Zoro while clenching his teeth tighter at the visible lack of results.

But he didn't have time enough to dwell on it: the two Guards were dashing in his direction for a synchronised attack at a surprisingly high speed for opponents that heavy. Zoro raised two of his katanas to counter the charge, and the two huge swords of bluish ice fell on him in a thunder of frosty dust and rock particles.

"Daibutsu Giri!" called Zoro while suddenly appearing out of the smoke, new injuries spreading on his body.

Adding this other technique to the list of the one she had tried against his awfully resistant enemies, he attacked his target with a succession of powerful horizontal slashes.

The ice Guard tumbled under the shock and even made a step backward to keep his balance. Making the best out of this brief momentum, Zoro charged the huge statue while preparing another special technique.

"Yasha Garasu!" called he while making his katanas spin.

The twirl of Zoro's swords slashed the armour of the colossus with crackles resembling the footprints of a crow, shaking it more and more.

But before Zoro could reinforce his advantage, the other Guard was already on him, dashing towards the place where the swordsman had landed on the devastated ground.

TILT. Zoro barely saw the hit coming his way, when the other huge sword of ice projected him once more against the wall of the corridor, denting the rocky ice even more deeply than before.

_Kof kof… Tsk, their teamwork has really no flaw… _thought Zoro while coughing blood, _Grr, I don't have a choice: I need to use THIS technique against these monsters of ice, whatever it'll cost me to…_

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, ROYAL COURTROOM, LATERAL CORRIDOR**

"Quiet…" whispered Nami who had progressed at the head of their group right behind one of the ice columns surrounding the arch passage around the Royal Courtroom.

In the centre of the room, sitting on a throne of translucent clue ice, Queen Jadis was listening to the report an ice crow – one of her minions – was making her respecting to the progress of the intruders inside her Palace.

"The Queen… it's bad…" grumbled Fuu in a whisper, perfectly understanding how dangerous their present situation was.

"The bird just told her that one of the invaders had destroyed the entire battalion of her best soldiers, the Red Guards, just after having emptied the kitchen's supplies." translated Chopper, his attention focused on the crow before turning back to explain its contents to his nakamas.

Sanji, Fuu and Nami displayed a common discomfited and weary expression, before heaving a deep yet amused smile.

"At least, we know our captain is alright…" tried to cheer up Sanji on an humoristic tone.

"Hum…" nodded Nami, a bit relieved for the fate of the one she loved, before focusing her attention back on the Queen, "So, now that we've found the Witch, we should… Huh, hey?"

"What?" asked Fuu in a whisper while coming nearer, alerted by the surprised tone of her friend.

"The crow is not there anymore…" reported Nami, perplexed upon contemplating Jadis now alone on her throne.

"WHAT?" screeched Fuu while repressing a scream of panic.

_Don't tell me… _thought Fuu while desperately looking for the aforementioned bird.

And following her bad feeling, Fuu's eyes wandered towards the ceiling of the arches. Right above them, the ice crow was staring at the four intruders with his black eyes.

"Oh no…" let escape Fuu in a breath.

CAW. The crow then screeched a sinister cawing, and Fuu precipitately turned back to glance towards the Queen, a desperate expression on her face.

"Everybody down!" shouted Fuu while throwing herself on Nami, Chopper and Sanji.

The gust of icy wind merely grazed them, sending shivers down Fuu's spin. She then quickly raised her head, glancing back to see what Queen Jadis was going to do.

"Tsk…" clenched her teeth Fuu upon seeing the Witch slowly coming their way, her sceptre pointed in their direction, "RUN!"

And she grabbed Chopper by his collar while Sanji was helping Nami back on her feet, and pushed everyone towards the big wooden door they had taken to enter the courtroom through its lateral entrance.

But another whirlwind of ice slammed the door, blocking their exit, and sent them flying towards the walls.

"Kyaaa!" screamed Fuu and Nami under the shock.

"Poitrine!" called Sanji while dashing towards the Queen, his kick flying in her direction.

_Sanji attacked a WOMAN? _thought in unison Nami and Fuu, their eyes bulging out of their sockets in disbelief.

But Sanji had targeted the Queen's sceptre, hoping to deprive her of her weapon… fruitlessly, however. Worst: as an answer to the attack, Sanji's leg – the one who had hit the sceptre – started to get covered with frost at an unbelievable speed. The cook winced and swiftly took back his feet and shook the ice out of his shoes.

_Tsk… A bit longer and my leg would have been frozen… _mumbled Sanji for himself, his flesh painfully hurting under the cold attack.

The Queen smiled faintly at Sanji, and attacked.

Numerous sceptre hits, countered with as many kicks from the blond pirate: it resembled a synchronised and terrific ballet, from which were escaping frosty wind puffs and snowflakes.

"Nami…" finally spoke Fuu, her face getting paler and paler, "We need to go and help Sanji!"

"Hey? Why?" asked Chopper, completely dumbfounded by the comment, "Sanji is stronger than Nami and you, Fuu. So if he's fighting, he should win, right?"

"That's not a problem of strength…" answered Nami, also very pale, "Sanji is not really fighting! He's just been countering the Queen's attacks but he's not attacking at all. From the beginning, he's defending us without wanting to fight… so there's no way he could win…"

"What?" exclaimed Chopper, completely panicking.

Nami and Fuu were still clenching their teeth at seeing Sanji's legs getting covered by icy frostbites, while the Queen didn't even seem to get tired by the fight, a faint sadistic smile floating on her lips. And Chopper was looking at the two girls, whose fists were trembling of a controlled rage while their heads were trying to decide on their best alternative – fighting, escaping, fighting to give them time to escape…

"If Sanji can't win, I'm going to help him!" finally decided Chopper while rummaging his pockets to take out a Rumble Ball.

But Nami's hand suddenly interrupted him, and Chopper raised his eyes in her direction.

"No, I'm going! We need you to carry and heal this stupid gentleman, afterwards!" said she while assembling her ClimaTact and standing up.

And Fuu and Chopper saw her dashing towards Sanji, until:

"NAMI-SAN!" shouted Sanji with a brief yet imperious glance back for the mikan-haired navigator, "Go back with the others right now!"

Nami flinched and stopped, shocked by the tone in Sanji's voice. Their blond nakama was still countering Queen Jadis' attacks, the Witch perpetually trying to send her icy winds towards the spectators.

"I can see that you have found yourself a valiant knight, Daughters of Eve…" commented the Queen with an amused smile for the blond man blocking all of her tentative to get rid of the bystanders.

Fuu caught sight of a peculiarly dark glare the Queen had sent her way and felt an extremely bitter taste spreading in her mouth when Jadis went on:

"Still, you are an annoyance so I will make you disappear!" assented the Witch with a frosty tone, "Your knight will not stay in my way for long…"

And her comment was punctuated by an icy blast that made Sanji cringe of pain at the sight of the frost growing thicker and thicker on his legs. But he still prevented Nami from coming near him by a small gesture of his arm.

_Sanji, baka! _thought Fuu upon meeting Nami's eyes which were as worried as her own, _He can't fight against a woman, it's against his gentleman code of honour, we perfectly know it! What does he think he's doing, countering all the attacks the Queen sends our way? If he expects us to run away while he's distracting her, he should know we'll never do that!_

Nami had stepped in the fight again, only to get her thunder bolt tempo easily countered by a gust of frosty wind, and she had been sent flying on the floor by a twist of sceptre.

Sanji's eyes had blackened and he had put himself right between Nami and the Queen, ready to counter any other attack the Queen would have sent this way.

Jadis' sadistic smile had grew even more amused and she had resumed her teasing fight with the pirate, slowly making the ice layer on Sanji grow colder and harder at each of his counters. And from times to others, she would send an even more sadistic glare towards Fuu, as if measuring up the pleasure she would have to torture the same way the girl who had dared to openly challenge her.

_Because of me… _thought Fuu while repressing a guilty nausea to reach her lips, _Because I broke her plan for controlling us during dinner… because I blew up her kekkai in the apartments… because I attacked her with a light blast when on the griffin… She wants to take revenge on me, just me! I should be the one fighting… the one suffering frostbites… the one protecting everyone else… Sanji, you baka! And Luffy, you even bigger baka!_

Fuu's eyes had disappeared behind the shadow of her hair, and Chopper soon raised his face towards the girl he was hearing muttering words in a breath.

"Fuu?" asked Chopper, a bit worried, before realizing that Fuu was starting to glow and that the thumbing words she was whispering were actually her 'spells': "HEY! What are you doing, Fuu?"

Chopper jumped on the girl and started to shake her by her shoulders to make her stop her incantation.

"Hey, Luffy told you not to use your power, and you promised!" scolded Chopper, his expression concerned and revolted at the same time, "It's a pirate promise!"

Fuu finally stopped muttering and her eyes fell on Chopper, even though her focus was lost on the fight happening right in front of them.

"I can't let Sanji become an ice statue for the sadistic pleasure of the Queen without doing anything, can I…" said she in a blank tone, her face emptied of all feeling except guilt and worry, her voice shaking under the revolt rampaging in her heart, "Even if Luffy yells on me afterwards, I can't just wait without doing anything…"

"You can't do that!" shouted Chopper with a very serious expression, "We promised to protect you! You have to trust your nakamas! And you promised too!"

Fuu bit her inferior lip to the blood, clenching her fist so hard her nails scratched her hands.

_I know I promised, and I don't want to betray their trust… But what do they think they're doing, promising to protect ME even if THEY are hurt! Come on, I'm just a guest in this story: I should be the one supporting the heroes, instead of being a burden on them! I had told myself not to interfere in the normal course of One Piece story anymore but so what? This damn story is already totally messed up by my fault, so how could I just stay a bystander when they're getting hurt in front of my eyes… I CAN prevent that, I CAN help them, I CAN save them… So even if I hate myself afterwards, even if Luffy take back his trust in me afterwards… I can… I can just send all of this to the dustbin and do what I believe I should do?_

A sudden gust of twirling wind interrupted Fuu's debate with herself:

"Cyclone Tempo!" had called Nami, the huge twister acting as a protective shield between Queen Jadis and the four pirates.

And Chopper and Fuu had momentarily forgotten their argument to rush towards Sanji and Nami, helping the cook to stand on his feet while Nami was panting to maintain her powerful whirlwind around them.

"Very impressive, Daughter of Eve…" calmly admitted the Queen.

BAM. BAM. BAM. In a small gesture of her sceptre, Jadis sent icy winds slam all the doors of the Royal Courtroom, covering the exits with thick layers of blue ice.

"Tsk…" screeched Nami at seeing that their escape was now blocked.

"Very impressive, but how long will you be able to hold it?" pursued the Witch with a faint smile on her lips.

"Nami-san…" softly called Sanji, limping out of Chopper and Fuu's arms to walk towards her.

Nami glanced at him with a surprised expression when she saw Sanji putting his hand on the ClimaTact to make her draw back.

"I take care of the Witch, so just hurry and find a way to escape this room!" declared Sanji on a determined yet resigned tone, "Hurry up!"

And Sanji pushed with one hand Nami towards Fuu and Chopper, before jumping out of the wind shield and dash towards the Queen.

"Diable Jambe!" called Sanji while twirling on himself to heat his half-frozen leg.

"Icy Statue!" calmly called the Queen while pointing her sceptre in his direction, her most amused sadistic grin on her lips.

CRASH. The clash of attacks and defence sent vibrations through the ceilings and the walls.

"SANJI!" screamed Nami, Fuu and Chopper at seeing Sanji violently blasted on the ice paving covering the ground, Queen Jadis slowly walking his way, her sceptre glowing with up-to-no-good magic.

**

* * *

ICE PALACE, ENTRANCE DOOR OF THE ROYAL COURTROOM**

Zoro had slowly got back on his feet, staring at the colossus who was still nearly untouched: he had decided to use THIS special technique in order to take advantage of the natural weakness of these huge ice puppets, never minding the consequences.

"Yaki Oni Giri!" called Zoro while dashing towards his target, his katanas simultaneously cutting the huge sword of blue ice of the Guard of three enflamed slashes.

The rests of the weapon collapsed on the floor in a thumbing sound of wet metal, leaving to Zoro the satisfaction of seeing the success of his attack and the pain of the fire devouring his hands after this technique.

And to the burning pain of the 'Yaki Oni Giri' was added the one of the fist of the second ice statue smashing him on the ground once more.

"Kof kof…" coughed Zoro while gasping to get back on his feet, spitting more blood on the dented floor of blue ice paving.

The second Guard then threw his sword towards the swordsman, countering for the first Guard now deprived of his weapon.

Zoro barely dodged, and the shards of rocks broken under the strength of the hit slashed his arms and torso.

"Tatsu Maki!" grumbled Zoro while reiterating the only technique who had managed to deeply affect the colossus and get through their heavy armours.

He charged the still-undamaged Guard, not listening to his own body screaming under the repetitive use of his most powerful techniques.

CRRR. The hit effectively touched its target, but for what consequences: the two Guards were now crackled and sizzled, Zoro was him out of strength and panting heavily.

He didn't even had energy left to avoid the hit coming from the ice statue still equipped with its blue sword. The slash blew him to the opposite wall and left numerous frostbiting cuts on his body.

"Huf huf huf…" was trying to catch his breath Zoro.

The heavy silence in the corridor was now only troubled by the sound of the chopped breathing of the swordsman, who had collapsed on his knees on the icy paving when trying to get back on his feet.

_I must… I need to… _was trying to think Zoro, searching in his mind a technique that would allow him to get rid of these two Guards to reunite with the rest of the group.

BAM. In the silence, Zoro suddenly clearly heard the noise of a fight chiming in the Royal Courtroom.

He raised his head, bewildered, and stared at the huge entrance door which was trembling under vibrations coming from the inside.

_Wh… _wondered Zoro before suddenly freezing at hearing a scream.

A scream coming from the other side of the door, the panicked scream of a girl whose voice he would recognize among thousands…

Zoro's face twisted!

THOOM. The atmosphere around him suddenly changed and got filled by murderous intents...

Zoro was now holding his katanas hard enough to make his fists bleed, and rage and frustration blending with all the hits he had received up until now made him resemble all of a sudden a God of War that impudent mortals would have had the misfortune of disturb.

As if swallowed by a black hole, gusts of wind started to move about him, sweeping the dust of icy rock which had been disseminated all around during the fight.

Zoro's eyes rose from under the shadow of his bandanna to glare at his opponents.

_Kiki Kyutoryu: ASHURA!_

"Ashura: Ichibugin!" thundered Zoro while dashing towards the two Guards of Ice, an illusion of a nine-sworded God appearing behind him.


	21. Story IV, Quest, Witch

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

…

The White Witch

…

**ICE PALACE, ROYAL COURTROOM**

"That will already make one Son of Adam and two Daughters of Eve out of my way…" announced Queen Jadis with a frosty smile, pointing her already-glowing-with-magic sceptre towards Sanji and the others.

BOM… The Queen suddenly stopped her action and everyone turned they eyes towards the huge double door, against which had echoed a loud thumb.

"Wh…" murmured Jadis while gazing at the entrance.

BOM! In a whirlwind of frozen rocky dust, the two parts of the door briskly collapsed against the floor of the Royal Courtroom, brought down by the weight of the two colossal ice armours that had been blasted against them with tremendous strength.

"Who…" thundered the Queen at the sight of her now-unusable Guards, disbelief and anger palpable in her voice.

Amidst the cloud of dusty frost, a shadow appeared and slowly grew more precise.

It was the silhouette of a man with his arms crossed in front of him, each of them holding a katana which blade was glowing under the eerie light emanating from the bluish ice. The man, whose head was covered by a bandanna, slowly stood up from his attack final position, panting a bit, and coolly sheathed back a third katana he was holding between his teeth before pointing one of his two remaining blades straight at the Queen in a threatening pose.

"Step back! I won't like it if you kill them…" warned the swordsman, his glare as dark as steel.

"Zoro!" exclaimed in unison Chopper, Nami and Fuu, relief lighting up in their eyes.

"Stop acting all high and mighty, Marimo…" mumbled Sanji, in very bad shape on the floor, but smiling faintly at seeing his eternal rival entering the room.

"Just move and enjoy the show, Dartboard-Eyebrow..." smiled back Zoro, "I'm taking care of that Witch!"

The Queen was now staring at the new entrant with circumspection: if he had managed to get rid of her two Guards of Ice, she could already estimate his strength to be quite high.

She thus reported all her attention on the green-haired pirate and let out of her sight Sanji and the others, letting them peacefully reach the side-lines while taking with them the looser from the previous confrontation.

Zoro slowly moved one foot back, shifting into an offensive position, and Jadis slowly raised her sceptre, resuming her fighting position.

They stared at each other during seconds that seemed like eternities, and finally:

"Nitouryu: Nigiri…" began Zoro while putting his two katanas in position, "… Otoro!"

And Zoro dashed towards the Queen.

His two katanas fell down on Jadis' sceptre, making the Queen slightly flinch under the shock.

And the dangerous dance of Zoro's blades and Jadis's sceptre began, bringing towards the bystanders the echoes of their clashes.

"Not good…" finally mumbled Sanji who had tumbled to raise his head while supporting himself on his elbows, helped by Fuu who was on her knees nearby their gentleman-cook.

Chopper – who had been rummaging in his backpack and running around the cook to take care of his wounds and bruises, while Nami was attentively guarding them, her ClimaTact ready to use – suddenly stopped what he was doing to look at him with a deep frown.

"If this attack doesn't even get though the Queen's garde, Marimo's going to cop it..." explained Sanji with a concerned tone.

Fuu and Chopper turned their head to look at the fight between their nakama and the Witch: indeed, whatever technique Zoro was using, the Queen was countering it with a mere twirl of her sceptre.

"Nana Ju Ni Hound Po!" called Zoro while sending two huge shockwaves in mid-air, the mass of compressed air coming from the twirls of his katanas flying towards the Queen.

"Icy Shield…" blocked the Ice Witch, her expression unblinking.

"Nigiri… Maguma!" called Zoro while swiftly jumping to thunder his two swords onto the Queen's sceptre.

But Jadis barely yielded under the pressure of the hit, her artefact countering the Nitouryu without any damage on her side.

The spectators on the side-lines gulped down in anxiety at this sight which was confirming Sanji's comment.

"And also… if Zoro is fighting with only two of his katanas, that means he's already gone beyond his limits…" added Nami while prudently crouching near everyone else, her weapon still ready, drops of concern appearing on her forehead but her eyes never leaving the fight out of her sight.

"It's true he looks really exhausted! His previous battle was really hard, I think… And also, I don't know why, but his wounds from Thriller Bark have never completely healed, inside…" cried Chopper with agitation at seeing a panting Zoro attacking the Queen once more.

_Thriller Bark? _tilted Fuu with concern, _Tsk, I wish I would have read until there! Maybe I could help them… if Zoro was hurt and never really healed, I'm sure there must be a reason…_

"Sai Kuru!" roared Zoro, dragging Fuu's out of her thoughts by his shout.

But the swordsman's efforts to get through the Queen's garde were fruitless, and he was once more countered by a mere twirl of sceptre.

"Icy Wind…" called the Queen in a sighing smirk, estimating that she had already wasted enough time testing the abilities of her opponent.

"Tsk…" clenched his teeth Zoro while swiftly putting his two katanas in a cross-shaped garde in front of him to counter the Queen's attack.

BAM. But the frosty shockwave sent him flying backwards and he crashed on the stone floor several metres away, before sliding on his back until reaching the side-lines, near Fuu.

"Zoro!" screamed she, mad with concern and rushing to help him back on his feet.

"Tsk!" grumbled Zoro while wiping away frozen blood from his mouth, "Rather tough, that damned Witch…"

Zoro was panting – panting really hard, even if he had put on a strong unflinching expression – and his nakamas weren't fooled by his little act. Nami had already tightened her grip on her ClimaTact, and Chopper had taken out one of his Rumble Balls out of his pocket. Even Sanji had tried to get back at least in a sitting position, but his frozen legs were aching so much he needed to bite his lips not to scream under the pain.

Zoro softly removed Fuu's hand from his shoulder and camped his foot on the icy paving to get back on his knees. But he tumbled on the side, making Fuu even more panicked when she helped him not to fall back on the floor.

Queen Jadis smirked at the sight and finally heaved a deep complacent sigh that contrasted a lot with her beautiful face.

"I had raised my expectations in you and thought you would have been an opponent worth my greatness, but it would seem that my two Ice Guards have already eaten the best part of you…" stated the Queen with a pitiful look for Zoro.

Zoro's eyes narrowed and he clenched his fists or rage at the comment. But Jadis ignored him and slightly turned her head to dart a glance at the hazelnut-haired girl supporting the swordsman.

"What about you, Daughter of Eve?" asked she in a very polite tone, as if offering her guests some cup of tea, "Have I to understand that you are not resolved in fighting?"

TILT. Fuu's eyes tightened at the comment.

"Is your impressive magical energy only there for decorum?" pursued the Queen with a very incisive look for the one she had considered her opponent from the start, measuring with satisfaction the impact of her comments on the young and mysterious girl, "Could you be a person who send other people dying for her without even lifting one finger to help them despite her own abilities?"

SNAP. The last sentence had definitely chimed in Fuu's heart as an icy needle piercing her from part to part.

Zoro felt her fingers dig in his shoulder while trembling and he tightened his grip on his katanas; Sanji clenched his teeth and glared at the Queen with one of his darker stares; and Chopper's face crumbled at seeing his hazelnut-haired nakama's face so livid.

But the one who silently rose to face the culprit, her hands tightened on her ClimaTact, was someone else.

"Fuu…" softly called Nami while standing up in front of the Queen despite her fear, "Don't yield to her provocation! Don't you dare let her have it her way!"

"Hum!" nodded Chopper while growing into his humanoid form to walk towards Jadis, "This Witch doesn't know a thing!"

"HEY! Both of you, stand back!" ranted Zoro while getting support on one of his katanas to get back on knees, "It's my fight, don't butt in!"

_Are you stupid, all of you? _thought Fuu with an expression impossible to distinguish, _This Witch totally knows what she's saying… And that's precisely because you're the type of people who are still protecting me despite that… that I won't care about what is going to happen to me as long as I can help you…_

"It's fine!" chimed in the voice of Fuu inside the quarrels between the three pirates.

"Oy!" ranted Zoro at seeing Fuu slowly standing up.

"It's fine, Zoro…" repeated Fuu with a dark glare for the Queen still looking at her with a smile of triumph, "I will…"

_Sorry Luffy… I'm going to… break this promise… sorry… _thought Fuu while slowly walking towards Queen Jadis.

"NO WAY!" shouted in unison Zoro, Nami, Sanji and Chopper, all of them grabbing at the same time a pleat of her dress to pull her backwards.

BAM. Fuu crashed head first on the ice paving.

_Ouch… Why? _thought Fuu while pitifully massaging her nose.

"We told you we'd take care of everything and protect you, so stay behind!" grumbled Zoro while tumbling back on his feet.

"What the…? You're hurt!" retorted Fuu – who had gotten back in a sitting position on the floor – with a disapproving look for Zoro's bruises.

_Why would I let myself be protected by them while I am the one who can protect them?_

"Shut up!" snapped Zoro while slowly positioning himself in garde between Fuu and the Queen, "I said I'll protect you!"

Silence fell for a second on the declaration, only to be terminated by the amused grin of Jadis.

"Brave…" admitted she while pointing her sceptre at Zoro, "… but foolish!"

Zoro clenched his teeth and camped his feet in the ground.

"Icy Wind." called the Witch for a second time.

Another draught of freezing wind twirled with violence around Jadis' sceptre and rushed towards the pirates.

Zoro's eyes narrowed but he didn't step back.

_Zoro… _panicked Fuu, Nami and their nakamas.

But the icy wind never reached the swordsman:

"Hiken!" had chimed in a masculine voice.

DOMM. A deflagration of snowy breeze blended with flames clashed against the Queen's attack, creating a huge white-hot sphere of colliding powers, and the two flows finally invalidated in a crackle of ice dust.

The pirates and the Queen raised their incredulous eyes towards the ceiling from where had come the intervention: one of ice stained glasses broken on the North side had let enter an immense silver flying creature!

And the Ice Dragon that Ace was mounting gracefully landed in the centre of the Royal Courtroom, whipping up snowflakes in a flutter of wings.

"Sorry, but I'm not planning on letting you the hero's role…" announced Ace with a teasing smile for Zoro when jumping from the Dragon's back to swiftly land near the other pirates.

He then shot a glance at the hazelnut-haired girl behind the swordsman and who had instinctively stood up at their arrival., his expression a mixture of relief and something else.

_Ace? And… the… Ice Dragon? _inwardly thought Fuu at meeting WhiteBeard's Second Commander's eyes.

And Fuu slowly moved her feet, feelling herself magnetically walk then run towards Ace and his mystical mount.

As if attracted by a mysterious force, Fuu forgot all about the battle that was playing around them, all about the White Witch who had been targeting them… She could only see a pair of eyes fixing her with an eerie glow burning in them… A pair of eyes she didn't know could have such an influence on her… Thus she run, her feet making her float on the frozen and dented stone paving of the Courtroom. She run and just dashed straight to hug it, to feel under her skin the heartbeat and energy of the one so dear to her…

CRASH. Ace's face crumbled at seeing Fuu pass him by and throw herself in the Ice Dragon's arms – and not his – her eyes completely hypnotized by the garnet pupils of the extraordinary creature who had landed with grace and nobility on the floor of the Royal Courtroom.

_What was I hoping for? _sighed he while massaging his neck, not really knowing what to do with the two arms he had prepared to answer Fuu's – anticipated – hug.

But Ace's deception lasted a mere moment. He quickly put his disappointment aside to stare at their enemy on the other side of the Courtroom with a cautious expression.

Indeed, Queen Jadis was now mad with anger, her pretty face distorted by fury and hatred at realizing that the one who had stopped her final blow had also freed the Ice Dragon. And with way less composure than before, she pointed her sceptre at him.

"Icy Wind!" shouted she while sending another frosty draught towards the intruder.

"Kagero!" countered Ace, sending a stream of flame to deaden the Queen's attack.

Ace quickly moved to face the Witch, flames lighting up on his whole body while he was carefully moving to switch the Queen's focus far away from the bystanders and above all from the hazelnut-haired girl behind him.

Meanwhile, Fuu had softly put her fingers on the Dragon's muzzle, in a gesture mixed with fear and respect, indifferent to the battle raging around her. She was gazing at the garnet eyes of the creature with amazement, eyes that were glowing with magic and wisdom.

"So you are fine…" whispered Fuu with relief while looking at the magical creature straight in its eyes, "I am so happy that you are fine…"

By way of answer, the Ice Dragon sounded out Fuu with his garnet pupils. He was gazing at the human girl his saviour had told him about, this human girl with such a peculiar magical energy but who respected Dragons so much and felt pride in sharing the same air as them, the same earth, the same magic…

"And Ace took good care of you…" pursued Fuu in a murmur, still mesmerized by the fantastic being in front of her, "Or you of Ace, I do not know… But if that is the case, I will be infinitely grateful to you!"

In answer, the Dragon slowly turned its head towards Ace and the Queen, who were staring at each other with a challenging stance. The garnet eyes seemed to tell Fuu that the battle wasn't finished yet…

"Hum…" softly nodded Fuu, "I know… Our battle is not finished and I wish I could do something… Even if I promised not to do anything but entrust everything to them… even if I weren't the one who helped you… even when seeing the price we paid for it, I can't help but being happy at seeing you free and fine…"

Fuu glanced at the Mugiwaras on the side-lines, and a faint grimace of sadness stretched her lips at seeing them panting, wounded and hurt – most deeply for two of them. The Dragon moaned softly and gazed at her with eyes seeming to tell her not to worry and blame herself that much, but in vain.

"So now, I need to try and do something…" muttered Fuu with a strong determination, "I can't just stay there and regret what I'm letting happening to them… I want to help my nakamas! I just hate this awful situation where I'm supposed to let them protect me!"

_The powerless princess role is definitely what I hate the most in any story! _thought Fuu at remembering with annoyance all the scenarios she had read in some mangas or even seen in some Hollywood movies and where the 'heroine' was letting the heroes sacrifice themselves in protecting her without even trying anything on her own, _Don't give me the 'let's protect the princess' crap! I'm not a heroine, not a princess, not even beautiful or important enough to pretend to be one… Besides, I should be the one supporting the heroes instead of being a burden on them, tsk…_

A soft gesture made Fuu leave her own world: the Dragon muzzle had gently pressed her cheek. Fuu slowly raised her eyes and shot a glance at the Dragon, before starting to sulk a bit at seeing reproach in the garnet pupils.

"I know…" sighed Fuu while finally yielding to the Dragon's stare, "Don't give me that look! I know I promised… but you should agree with me that sometimes, you have things to protect way more important than that…"

The Dragon's eyes seemed to glow with chuckle, as if the creature was deeply amused by the paradoxical mixture of thoughtful maturity and childish whims he could read in the hazelnut-haired girl's heart.

But a violent gust of enflamed icy snowflakes brought Fuu back to reality, and she jumped back with concern at seeing Ace and the Queen resuming their fight even more fiercely than before, flames and ice colliding in white-heated energy blasts.

Fuu's eyes followed Ace for long seconds, before she then forced herself to bring her attention back on the fantastic creature near her.

"I would have loved to keep on debating with you…" smiled Fuu with a regretful yet caring expression, "And I'm sure you can already read in my heart this is not the only thing I'm regretting, but I think you should fly away… Since the Queen is not focused on you right now, please take advantage of it to escape her…"

Surprise veiled the garnet pupils of the Ice Dragon for a brief second, before it was replaced by concern and care at seeing the human girl begging it to escape while she was inwardly so eager to spend more time with it, so flushed at having in front of her the creature she had long been admiring.

"Leave as long as it is possible…" advised Fuu while shooting some quick glances at the battle between Jadis and Ace, "And… please live on… free and wise… watching over this world!"

Fuu bit her lips to hold on the urge of hugging the Dragon in her arms and just timidly patted his muzzle. As way to answer, the Dragon gazed at her one more time, but way more warmly and caringly than before, and finally closed its eyes.

Fuu suddenly felt small particles of magical energy accumulating under her fingers. When she finally raised her hand at the level of her eyes to look at the object that had appeared out of the concentration of magic, she blinked in disbelief at the big silvery pearl glowing with a garnet lustrous.

A bit flabbergasted, Fuu raised her eyes toward the Ice Dragon, wondering if she should consider it a present, and the fantastic creature slightly nodded – even before Fuu could have formulated her question.

The second after, the Ice Dragon had already spread its wings and taken off in a whirlwind of frosty dust, rushing towards the ceiling of the Royal Courtroom, while Fuu was muttering a silent and dumbfounded 'Thank You' between her lips.

"Icy Wind!" called the Queen at realizing the Dragon's attempt, her sceptre pointing towards the creature.

"Enjomo!" countered Ace, his mirror of flames preventing the Witch's magic to reach the mythical creature.

The Second Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet then shot a glance at the Dragon and waved at it with a crooked smile.

And under these adieus, the Dragon drew away in the starry sky of Fimbul.

"How… dared you… freed… my Ice Dragon!" thundered Jadis, glaring at Ace with her lovely eyes black with rage.

"It never was yours to begin with." calmly outlined Ace with one of his most confident and irritating smiles, "Dragons are like pirates, they're meant to live free!"

"You are going to pay this insolence! Icy Arrow!" called the Queen while sending a freezing laser in Ace's direction.

"Kagero!" countered Ace while swiftly jumping back to give way to his huge stream of flames.

But he suddenly noticed something on his left and felt his heart thumb with concern.

"Fuu! What are you doing?" called he towards the hazelnut-haired girl who was still absentmindedly gazing at the ceiling at the place where the Dragon had disappeared less than a minute before, "Hurry up with the others!"

_Hey? Oh, Ace… Ace? Wait, the Dragon…_

The silent conversation with the Dragon had somehow numbed her senses, and the garnet pearl in her hands was pulsing like a magical heartbeat, keeping the presence of the fantastic creature fresh in her mind.

But the frosty wind caused another 'Icy Arrow' also countered by Ace brought her back to reality. Fuu suddenly remembered where she was standing – on the middle of the battlefield – and how dangerous the situation was – Ace had covered up for her already twice – and her face flushed with shame at the realization.

_Oh no! I'm definitely an idiot… and a burden… _inwardly cursed she while precipitately leaving the battlefield and running towards her nakamas, _And hopeless too! Even though I took the resolution of not burdening them, I'm just getting in their way…_

Upon reaching the side-lines from where everyone was watching the clash between Queen Jadis' Ice and Ace's fire, she kneeled down near Chopper.

"Chopper, would you please put this Pearl in safety in your bag?" asked Fuu while holding out the gem to the little reindeer.

"What is it?" asked Chopper, quite perplexed.

"A gift from the Ice Dragon, and it's really precious… But I'll explain you later!" insisted Fuu while forcing the jewel in the little doctor's pawns, eyeing with concern the battle behind her.

"Higan!" called Ace, the fire bullets leaving his fingers flying towards the Queen.

"Icy Shield!" blocked Jadis while deflecting the attack before countering with one of her most powerful magic: "Icy Storm!"

Several hailstones beat down on Ace – even more quickly than the similar attack from the Ice Dragon – and Ace also countered the same way, melting them away in a pillar of flames.

But the Queen had mostly anticipated the counter: she had made use of the distracting hail storm to move closer to Ace and directly target him with her sceptre.

But Ace had learn the hard way that ice weapons were his most dangerous enemies – as the frostbites left by the panther-warrior were still painfully reminding him – and he dodged every attack of the Queen, cautiously avoiding any contact with the ice sceptre.

Queen Jadis winced at realizing she won't be able to get rid of him the same way as Sanji but didn't draw back, hoping to find an opening.

But a 'Hiken' from Ace ruined her plan and sent her far away from him under the strength of the fire-fist draught. Nonetheless, the Witch was still unharmed, perfectly safe behind her ice shield, and Ace's teeth clenched at this assessment.

Long seconds flew by in the Royal Courtroom, the two opponents looking at each other in silence.

"Quite impressive, I must confess…" finally announced the Queen in a smirk while pointing her sceptre at Ace, "Nearly a shame to think that I do need to kill you… Icy Wind!"

"Kyokaen!" countered Ace, before answering with a mocking smile: "Your ice won't resist long against my fire, your Highness… I hope you'll forgive me beforehand for turning you into ashes!"

"Arrogant Son of Adam!" answered Jadis with a forced smile.

And another showdown of close ranged hits and dodges started between the Queen and Ace.

Nami and Chopper – and in a somehow reduced measure Sanji and Zoro – were watching the fight with admiration, hope springing up as they started to believe it was maybe possible to defeat the Witch, after all.

But Fuu's smile had fainted nearly immediately, when images of Ace's hurt body had popped in her memory. Even though her mind had been preoccupied by the Ice Dragon at that time, she had perfectly seen the frostbitten scars on Ace's bare torso.

_The marks are so numerous… Even without knowing how hard his previous fight was, it's easy to guess he paid his victory quite an expensive price! _thought Fuu with drops of concern appearing on her temples,_ And easy to guess that he'll be at a disadvantage in this fight if the battle is going to drag on… I need to do something!_

Fuu glanced at her other nakamas on the side-lines, and slowly moved towards their two hurt fighters to see if she could do something for them, thus also bringing Chopper's and Nami's attention back on them.

"Hotarubi!" called Ace, hoping to take the Queen by surprise as he had done with the panther-warrior.

But Jadis didn't fall into the trap and didn't let the fireflies a chance to get near her.

"Icy Wind!" called she in protective whirlwind that dispersed the green flying flames.

_Tsk… _thought Ace at seeing the delicate situation he was into, their fragile balance of powers possibly crumbling at any moment, _I guess that's what you get when using two opposite powers! Everything and nothing at the same time: they're both the most resistant shield and the most deathly weapon against each other… And if the weapon gets past the shield…_

"Icy Storm." called Jadis, making another cloud of hailstones beat down on Ace.

WhiteBeard's Second Commander countered and turned the ice blocks into vapour through one of his 'Hibashira' pillar of fire, before dashing to attack the Queen in what he thought could be an opening.

Meanwhile, Chopper had started to take care of Sanji and Zoro again, helped out by Nami and Fuu, but the little doctor was growing more and more alerted at realising he couldn't do anything against the deep frostbites caused by the sceptre of the Queen.

Zoro and especially Sanji took the piece of news with a grimacing expression, before Nami punched everyone with an enthusiastic fist to teach them not to give up and stop being so pessimistic. Fuu laughed a bit, even if her heart was sulking, and glanced back at the fight happening behind her.

_Hum, Ace doesn't seem to find an opening in the Queen's garde… And he's started to pant a bit… _realised she with a very concerned expression at seeing the exchange of hits between the two opponents, _Zoro and Sanji are not is shape to help him and I'm still bound by this damned promise… Luffy, you baka!_

_And now that I think about it, where is he? I know the hero always appears when he'll have the most impact, but don't make it a life or death situation before popping up, grr… Ace is not in trouble yet, but if only he could get some help, we might find a way to pass through Jadis' garde… If only Luffy was here, they could fight together, like at Marine Ford, and they could…_

"Shinka: Shiranui!" called Ace while launching two spears made of flames towards the Queen.

But the Witch deflected them in a mere twirl of sceptre, completely unharmed by the attack, while one of the fire spears flew violently towards the spectators – more precisely towards Fuu's back, the hazelnut-haired girl having kneeled down near Zoro to take care of his wounds, still completely lost in her thoughts.

"CAREFUL!" shouted Zoro while grabbing Fuu's wrist from one hand and countering the 'Shiranui' spear with the katana in his other hand.

BAM. The weapon made of flames tumbled on the ice paving on their left, and Zoro also collapsed afterwards, panting heavily and cringing at the pain of his injuries who had reopen during the move.

"FUU!" shouted Ace, mad with worry at seeing blood dripping from the girl's arm at the place the spear had grazed her.

Ace clenched his fists until they turned white, mad with frustration, and only breath again when seeing Fuu back on her knees and scolding Zoro for having moved even though he was hurt. A small sigh of relief left WhiteBeard's Second Commander's lips, and he brought back his attention on his opponent.

TILT. Jadis was smirking with a very deranging expression.

"Hum… Might I take this reaction of yours as a proof that this Daughter of Eve is important to you?" evaluated the Queen with a shadowy smile.

Ace's eyes narrowed and he resumed his battling position without uttering a single syllable.

Jadis smiled even more widely at his reaction and slowly stretched out her sceptre in front of her. A circle of frost spread and glowed around her.

"Icy Ring." softly called the Queen, before releasing her cold ring like a ripple on water.

"Kyokaen!" countered Ace with a shared expression, not really knowing what the Witch's strategy could be by sending such a slow – relatively slow comparing to her 'Icy Arrow' – attack at him although he could easily block it by his wall of flames.

SHIN. Ace froze when he raised his eyes to glance at the Queen beyond his mirror of fire: Jadis was smiling, widely grinning, one of these twisted smirk that show the delight of seeing a prey falling into a trap.

And Ace briskly turned back at realising that the freezing wave had only been negated by his flames in front of him but not elsewhere: the rest of the ripple was pursuing its way towards the limits of the room, towards the spectators watching the fight from a distance, towards Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Chopper… and Fuu.

"GRR!" roared Ace at completely turning back and sending his flames to catch up with the 'Icy Ring' as fast as he could.

But at the very same moment, he felt a thumbing pain in the inferior part of his body, and screamed behind his teeth clenched. The Queen had succeeded in her diversion and made use of Ace's inattention to get close to him.

"Icy Statue." had softly called Jadis when her sceptre had hit Ace's legs, transforming them into translucent bluish ice as hard as marble.

"Urgh…" coughed Ace while collapsing on the floor, tumbling to get on his elbows to see if at least the price paid had been worth it.

In his vision blurry by pain, he looked after the silhouettes of the one(s) he had wanted to protect, sending his flames towards them even though he should have kept his focus on the Witch. But his mirror of flames hadn't reach Fuu and the others in time to counter the Queen's attack.

"How useless…" commented Jadis with a satisfied look for the bystanders' state, while making Ace roll on his back with a soft kick from her left feet.

Indeed, Zoro and Sanji had been severely touched by the freezing wave, as well as Nami and Chopper who had collapsed with pain, their members partially frozen and frostbitten. The only one who had escaped this fate had been Fuu, and only because Zoro had grabbed the hazelnut-haired girl to pull her behind him and shield her from the attack.

"Your efforts have been in vain! And if you had not concerned yourself with the likes of them, you would not be in your current predicament…" commented Queen Jadis with a frosty smile, "As I said previously to the other Son of Adam, brave… but foolish!"

From his lying position, Ace glanced at Fuu's expression – panicking and desperate, but safe – and somehow felt a bit comforted by the sight. But relief was short-lived, as pain came back at him, and he looked at his frozen legs with a grimace.

_Tsk… The same as the ice blades of this panther-warrior… I can't regenerate the wounds! And here, it's even worse than a mere scar… definitely not the same kind of ice power than Aokiji: it's like my legs have changed into stone! Even though I've got a Logia level power, to think that I can't do anything against this ice, tsk…_

_Well, at least I'm relieved that Fuu won't have to endure that: it burns as if my flesh was being torn off… But Fuu being Fuu, I guess she's not happy with being the only one saved either, heehee… _thought Ace in a sad yet amused smile.

"Oh, what a wonderful smile to immortalize!" smirked Jadis with a shadowy expression, pointing her glowing sceptre at Ace to freeze him completely and add him to her collection, "Icy Statue!"

_No… _thought Fuu – who had been fighting with Zoro and trying to take care of everyone else until she had caught a glimpse of the Queen's doing.

"NOOO!" screamed she, tears of rage welling up in her eyes while magical energy was instinctively building up in her fist under the shape of a golden glow.

But even before she could release her 'spell' into one of her shining wind blasts, a shout interrupted her:

"Gomu Gomu no… Bazooka!" called a masculine voice beyond the destroyed entrance door.

Two elastic fists then flew towards Queen Jadis at light speed, and the shock made her tumble backwards of a good thirty metres despite her ice shield.

"LUFFY!" called the spectators on the side-lines.

"Luffy…" muttered Ace in a smile at seeing his little brother rushing towards him.

"Ouch, Ace! You're all beat up!" commented Luffy with one of his usual stupid expression, when crouching near his brother.

"Oh, really?" sarcastically asked Ace while forcing a smile, "And who's at fault, according to you?"

"Hum…" paused Luffy while frowning deeply, an unusual reaction that was showing that the comment had had way more impact on him than the usual sarcasms he was generally dodging with a sulking face.

And without more warning, Luffy grabbed Ace by his waist and put him on his shoulder – exactly as he was usually doing with the bags of flour or potatoes when Sanji was using them to carry food supplies – to carry him out of the battlefield.

"Hey, Luffy!" thundered Ace, "What the heck do you think you're doing? Kakkowarui! Oy, put me down, Baka-Otouto!"

But Luffy flatly ignored his brother and only put him down when they reached the stone stairs on the side-lines, near the column-bordered cloister, softly placing him near Fuu who had hurried to catch Ace in her arms.

Luffy then looked at his nakamas, all of them hurt and suffering deep frostbites. His fists and teeth clenched in a grimace of sadness and frustration.

And his eyes hardened even more when he saw Nami, who was still forcing a smile on her face while refusing to give up, but whose frozen shoulder was hurting like hell. Luffy's face crumbled a faint second, and he lowered his eyes under the shadow of his hat, his whole body trembling under rage and regrets.

TILT. Something finally caught Luffy's attention and he slowly raised his head to glance at it: Fuu's hands which were supporting Ace were red, even redder than her eyes, red with blood from when she had clenched her fists so hard that her nails had dug into her palms.

Luffy's eyes and mouth widened, of disbelief at first, then of remorse when images of him making Fuu promise him not to use her power popped into his memory, followed by images of her taking it onto her and clenching her fists until they bleed because she couldn't do anything to help her nakamas.

BAM. Luffy's fist had dented the icy stone column nearby him, completely destroying it under the strength of the blow.

He then raised his head to look at everyone and showed them one of these apologetic and regretful expressions that no one had ever seen on Luffy's face, one of these serious-looking faces one could rarely see.

"My bad… I couldn't keep my part of the promise…" apologize Luffy in a tone blank with remorse.

_Luffy…? _thought all the others with concern at seeing their captain, lover, friend, brother taking it so hard on himself.

"Fuu…" finally called Luffy, his face still grey with pain, "Can… can I… in the end… can I still ask you to use your power?"

Fuu's eyes widened.

"Can I… can I be selfish and ask you to heal everyone with it?" asked Luffy while swallowing back his rage and remorse.

Fuu's expression softened and she mouthed her own lips to hold back her urge to yell out her answer.

"Of course…" whispered she in a sad smile, while holding back her tears.

_Of course, baka… I was already determined to do it even if you had not asked me! _thought she while her insides were twisting at the thought, _Determined to use it whatever the cost even if I had told myself to take it onto me and keep my promise…_

Fuu glanced anxiously at her nakamas, and then brought back her eyes on Luffy, who was still trembling in front of the same scene.

_But if I had decided to do it sooner, I wouldn't have made my nakamas go through so much pain and wounds… nor would I have seen such a guilty and regretful expression on Luffy's face… I feel so awful! Awful… Am I just a coward, in the end? Am I not able to protect what I care for if it means I would lose someone's trust in exchange?_

Fuu bit her inferior lips and glanced once more at Luffy. And in front of such a guilty expression, she swallowed back her own regrets.

"Luffy!" called she in a strong voice, trying to forget about everything else, "I'll do, trust me!"

Luffy paused a few seconds, blinked a few times, and finally smiled his nearly-usual stupid grin in answer. He then turned back to glance at the pile of frozen marble from under which Queen Jadis was slowly emerging, Luffy's 'Gomu Gomu no Bazooka' having had more impact on the architecture of the room than on her, but had still been troubling her to get rid of all the stone blocking her way.

"That Witch… I'm going to butt her ass!" roared Luffy, his eyes dark as steal, "She's going to pay: Gear… Second!"

And Luffy rushed towards his opponent, vapour emanating from his whole body as he had activated his ability.

"Gomu Gomu no… Jet Rifle!" called Luffy while targeting the Queen with this difficult-to-avoid technique.

"Icy Shield." called once again Jadis, her expression more cautious and annoyed than before by her new opponent.

Fuu followed for a few seconds the fight: Luffy was doing great, dodging the Queen's attacks and sending her flying until the bottom of the Royal Courtroom by multiple and repetitive hits on the Queen's ice shield.

_Seems like we will have ten minutes of grace, the span of Luffy's Gear Second… But I remember it's very bad for his body to keep on using it, so everyone have to be able to go and help him before his Gear Second reaches its limits…_

A bit relieved for Luffy, Fuu focused her attention back on her nakamas. Her heart sunk at seeing them so deeply hurt but patiently enduring the pain without complaining at all.

_They didn't even ask… _thought Fuu while biting her lip even harder, _They didn't even ask me to heal them even though they knew I could use my power to do it! I'm worthless! I should be the one helping them out and they are the one who helped me, saved me, protected me… and they didn't even ask me this in return…_

BAM. Everyone stared at Fuu in disbelief: the hazelnut-haired girl had punched the ice paving in front of her to vent her frustration in the hit.

She then heaved a deep sigh and joined her hands in prayer in front of her, closing her eyes to focus her attention into her 'spell'. She had decided to try a massive healing magic, coupling a defrosting aura to her usual healing 'spell', something she had never done before, mainly because she knew it was a very powerful magic to use.

_Who cares about my own energy, tsk… _thought she while concentrating on this exhausting 'spell'.

Under Fuu's silent chanting, particles of silver light started assembling right above her hands, creating little by little a sphere of pure magic glowing of silver. When the last word of her incantation was murmured, the pearl of light spread into a wave, softly slicing through the air.

Like a ripple on water, the silver aura slowly dispersed and touched the circle of pirates, healing them into a warm glow. Frostbites disappeared from Nami and Chopper's bodies, leaving the both of them at the same time relieved and dumbfounded.

But the 'spell' wasn't enough to totally heal the three fighters, only erasing their superficial wounds and bruises.

_Ugh… It wasn't enough to get rid of the stony-ice from the Queen's sceptre… _realised Fuu with a disappointed expression, _I know it's my first time trying a 'Healing Circle' but I had expected a better result somehow, especially considering how much energy it had pumped me…_

Fuu was already starting to pant, the effect from the pill Chopper had given her at the Onsen having for long faded away, exhaustion catching her back.

_Tsk… Then I'll just have to heal them one by one with my usual spell! I think I can still support something like that… I don't care if I'm fainting again: watching them getting hurt was way more painful than any anaemia crisis…_

Nami – who had finally stopped looking at her shoulder with disbelieving eyes – was now staring at Fuu with concern.

"Chopper!" called she while progressing towards the little doctor and her other nakamas, "We're going to help Fuu to heal the others!"

"Hey?" tilted Chopper – as well as Fuu, "But Nami, I already looked at it before, and I can't do anything against this strange ice: it's different from the time where Aokiji had frozen Robin…"

But Nami wasn't listening anymore, and she was couching on Sanji to try and look how much wounds were left on their cook.

"And by the way, Sanji-kun…" asked she with a sulking and lecturing tone, "Can you explain me why you protected us from the Queen? We all know you can't fight against a woman, so going all the way to fight while knowing you're going to lose…"

"Well… His chivalry code doesn't seem that stupid to me…" chimed in Ace with a faint smile: _After all, I'm in the same state as him for having wanted to protect someone too…_

"A bunch of idiots!" sighed Nami while punching Sanji on his head, even if the faint smile on her lips was contradicting her official anger.

"Yes, real baka(s)…" agreed Fuu in a murmur while coming closer to Ace: _If you had not tried and protect us, the Queen's diversion would have failed and you wouldn't be hurt that much, baka!_

"But this ice… What can we do, what can we do?" was panicking Chopper at examining Zoro's wounds once more, "A doctor, a doctor… Ah, it's me! But… but I can't do anything, gyaaa! And Fuu's spell failed, gyaaa!"

"Calm down, Chopper!" said Fuu in a half-amused smile at the panicked expression of their little reindeer, "I'm going to use my normal healing spell and I'm sure it should be fine! If I focus more my power, I can heal them from this ice!"

"Oh!" calmed down Chopper at seeing Fuu close her eyes and begin to whisper the incantation of her 'spell'.

Fuu's lips were now glittering with their customary silver glow, ready for her usual healing 'spell'. And she slowly reopened her eyes to bend over on Ace, focusing all her energy into her wish.

Her lips grew closer to Ace's cheeks, under the flabbergasted look of Nami and the others, who had never seen Fuu using her healing power before, a tacit agreement having been made between her and Chopper that she won't steal his job of doctor by using it when it wasn't a matter of life or dead.

But Ace seemed to think it would be a waste to let such a golden opportunity slip away, so he turned his head at the very last second, making Fuu miss her original target.

Fuu froze when her lips touched WhiteBeard's Second Commander's skin.

_Wh…? Ace? _inwardly ranted Fuu while blushing furiously and promising herself to make him pay this dirty trick later on.

_My thank you gift for having saved you… _grinned Ace with one of his usual crooked smile for the hazelnut-haired girl kissing him, making her blush even more.

Nami, Chopper, Sanji and Zoro were sitting on the floor behind Fuu and were quite surprised to see her using this kind of method for her spell, but they had not noticed the beat-red cheeks of their nakama, nor the reason why she was so embarrassed.

Actually, they couldn't see the small difference of a mere centimetres that had brought Fuu's healing kiss not on Ace's cheeks as forecasted, but on the corner of his lips.

And Fuu was trying really hard to stay in control of her own feelings to let her silver healing aura seep into Ace and close down his wounds. She let her lips on his skin for long seconds, letting her magical energy erase the frostbite scars from his body and defrost his legs, trying not to focus on the teasing smile her patient was dedicating her, nor on the obsidian eyes that were looking straight into hers with an eerie glow setting them ablaze.

And when Ace's recovery was lastly complete, she finally allowed her to do what she was burning to do for long seconds: BONG. Fuu's fist rang on Ace's skull, under the still perplexed look of Nami and Chopper.

"Wow…" exclaimed Chopper who had rushed towards Ace to examine him, "Fuu, you really healed all his wounds and this special frostbite?"

"Fuu, you… KISSED him?" exclaimed Nami while staring at her friend with an astounded expression.

"WHAT KIND OF POWER IS THAT?" exclaimed in unison Chopper and Nami, intensely staring at Fuu with a disbelieving look, but not for the same reason.

"Ah, hum… that's, hum…" began Fuu, definitely ill-at-ease by the question and starting to mumble her answer, "It's a healing 'spell' I use with the power of my Devil Fruit, hum… First, I focus the energy inside my own body and assemble enough of it for… well, depending on the number of people and the severity of the wounds… that's the silver light you've seen. And after, I need to transfer this energy to the person I want to heal, and I need to touch them long enough for the 'spell' to close down all of their wounds, and hum…"

"Hum… I see, I see…" nodded Chopper with a very professional-looking expression: _So she use her own energy to boost the natural recovering process of the body, but also to neutralize any physical alteration the patient had been exposed too, hum… That's really impressive…_

"And you need to KISS them for that?" asked Nami, still dumbfounded by the scene she had witnessed.

"Well, that is… At first, I did wanted to use my hands to transfer the energy, but… that… it wasn't possible the first time I ever used that 'spell' so… I guess… I guess my power instinctively kept that shape ever since…" muttered Fuu, more and more ill-at-ease by Nami's comment.

_Ever since Marine Ford, I only used it on the little Robin, so I never really thought it could be a problem to let my power keep that shape, but now that I think about it, it's a bit…_

"Oh, so your first time really was with me, hum?" teased Ace with a smile full of innuendo.

SHIN. Everyone froze at Ace's comment and gradually stared at him.

BONG. Fuu's fist had rung a second time on Ace's skull.

"Don't… don't say such easy-to-misunderstand things!" cried Fuu, even redder than she had believed she could become.

And she immediately turned back to deny the piece of information, but Zoro, Sanji and Nami were still crashed on the floor, knocked off by the declaration, while Chopper was looking at them with perplexity, the little reindeer not having understood the double-meaning of Ace's sentence.

_Oh no! Everyone… what should they be thinking about me, now? Ace, you baka! Baka! BAKA!_

"Gomu Gomu no… Jet Gatling!" shouted a voice behind them, making everyone come back to reality.

Under Luffy's high-speed hits, a huge draught blew in the Royal Courtroom, definitely awaking everyone to their present situation.

Fuu glanced at the battle that was happening behind her and which had already destroyed half of the Courtroom. She then glanced at the remaining wounds and frostbites of her nakamas and definitely swallowed back her embarrassment to walk towards Sanji and kneel down near him.

"Oh, Fuu-chwan, are you going to heal me too? Extreme happiness! That such a delightful kiss would bring me to life, it seems like heaven!" was having a rolling gait Sanji, his eyes in heart-shape.

Fuu blinked at the comment and heaved an amused sigh.

_The severity of our situation doesn't seem to be enough to prevent Sanji from shifting into love-love mode when a girl is approaching him, huh…? Or is it that he trusts Luffy so much that he's granting himself the permission to have some fun?_

And with a faint smile at the thought, Fuu closed her eyes and began muttering her incantation.

_Hey?_

Fuu stopped her 'spell' and suddenly reopened her eyes at feeling something warm on her lips.

Ace had stood up to come and crouched near her, and putting his index on Fuu's lips to stop her incantation while switching on flames in his other hand.

"You're not obliged to use one of your 'spells' to make this ice disappear… I can just melt it down!" proposed he with a very cunning smile that denoted a lot with his usual serious expression.

"Gyaaa! Are you kidding us?" shouted in unison Chopper, Nami and Sanji, their eyes bulging out of their sockets.

"If you put a flame on such frostbite, the wound is only going to get worse!" exclaimed Chopper, dead serious, while stepping between Ace and Sanji to prevent such a thing from happening.

"And then… Fuu will still need to heal him, and with a longer spell, even!" cautioned Nami with an explicit stare for Ace.

"Tsk!" sulked WhiteBeard's Second Commander while putting out the fire in his hand, under the relieved expression of Sanji.

Fuu tilted her head on the side, not really understanding about what the problem had been, and finally closed down her eyes again to focus back on her incantation, while Sanji was resuming his cuddling caterpillar dance at the healing kiss expectation.

"We're going to find an alternative solution, then!" smirked Ace while knocking out Sanji with a huge punch on his head.

And when Fuu finally reopened her eyes, ready to heal Sanji, the cook was lying on the floor, KO, stars twirling around his head. Quite perplexed, Fuu looked at Nami, but the navigator only shrugged her shoulders with an amused expression.

Fuu thus didn't seek farther and slowly bent over to kiss Sanji on his forehead, letting the silver aura seep until the toes of the gentleman. When the 'spell' was finished, Sanji was still KO but his wounds as well as the ice hindering him had disappeared.

"Wow, when we're used to it, I have to admit that it's really impressive!" commented Nami with an enthusiastic expression, before noticing the pale face of her friend, "Hey, Fuu, are you okay? Don't use your power too much!"

"No, it's fine! I'm feeling great!" comforted Fuu while controlling her breath.

_To be more honest, I'm beginning to get tired… Well, no, to be completely honest, it would be more objective to say that I'm exhausted, but it's out of the question to admit it, even less to show it… I don't want them to feel bad for me! I mean, they did all the work and even protected me… they ended up hurt just not to make me use my power… hurt so much… The least I can do is heal them, whatever it costs me!_

"Hum…" paused Chopper who was now examining the totally recovered body of Sanji, "I feel a bit useless, now…"

"Of course not, Chopper…" retorted Fuu with a comforting smile for the little doctor, "There're wounds only you can heal, you know! You'll see later on, and that's why you're the most important!"

"That doesn't make me happy at all, bastard!" danced Chopper, contradictorily happy by the compliment.

Fuu smiled back at the little reindeer and then slowly stood up – carefully controlling her breath and her balance to be sure not to reveal the thumbing exhaustion that was rising into her – and walked towards Zoro.

"If… if you're planning on healing me too, no need!" roared Zoro with his cheeks flushed, "That's nothing big, scratches…"

"Oh, I confirm: scratches severe enough to prevent you from fighting!" taunted Fuu while kneeling down near Zoro.

And having already expected the swordsman to retort something like that, she started to inwardly murmur the incantation for her 'spell'.

"I don't need you healing me!" insisted Zoro while trying to crawl farther from her, but stopping midway in his attempt when his wounds and frostbites painfully reminded him of his current state.

"Oh… Then how about proving us you indeed don't need it by standing up to show how fine you are…" sighed Fuu with a look of reproach and provocation for the swordsman.

_My 'spell' is ready… _thought Fuu while her lips had turned into a light silver, _Now, an opportunity…_

"No need, I said!" was still sulking Zoro, his face still red and averting his eyes from Fuu, as if that attitude was going to make her renounce.

_An opening… _smiled Fuu, who was starting to lose focus for maintaining her 'spell' so long.

And making use of this moment of inattention, Fuu swiftly rose and pinned her lips on Zoro's cheek.

SHIN. Zoro froze, and started blushing furiously. On his side, Ace had clenched his fists but was staying calm.

And Fuu focused her energy a bit more to let the silver healing aura seep into Zoro. Long seconds flew by, and Fuu's face started getting paler and paler, but she was still letting her magical energy wrap the swordsman and close down his wounds.

_Huh? Strange… It should be finished from long time ago, but it's as if all my energy was being sucked into him… I kind of accept that he's the type not to take a good care of his body, but his wounds shouldn't be really worse than Ace's or Sanji's…_

Drops of exhaustion were starting to appear on Fuu's temples, but she didn't break her spell, not concerned about the quantity of magic she was using, her, but by the fact that it meant Zoro's body was in need of this same amount of magic.

_Why? Just why? It feels like there are wounds in his body that are gulping up my healing 'spell' because they've never really closed down… What happened to Zoro recently? I mean, Chopper is a really good doctor, so what could have caused that?_

Fuu was feeling that her own energy was reaching her limits, and she decided to go and ask directly Zoro's body what he had endured, instead of waiting for her to be completely exhausted and unable to give him proper treatment.

_Sorry Zoro, it's really impolite, but I need to see in your memories where are these wounds coming from…_

And, her lips still pinned on Zoro's cheek to let the healing aura do her job, Fuu mentally pronounced another incantation to use her Devil Fruit power once more and peek into Zoro's mind – in the part of his memory linked to his wounds – what had happened.

Under this new inquisitive power, Fuu's eyes narrowed and frowned like under a nightmare, while images of Zoro training – harsh training – with Mihawk, then images of him fighting a Pacifista and Kizaru at Sabaody were flowing into her head as she was searching the memory of his wounds deeper and deeper in the past. And she finally reached the part from where was coming his biggest wound – the black-hole-looking one that was gulping up magic without closing down – and about which Chopper had talked about: Thriller Bark.

ZAAA. Suddenly, multiple slashes busted out on Fuu's body, deeply scratching her skin in answer to the 'spell' she was still using to try and close down the invisible yet deep wounds of her patient.

"Wh…?" panicked Zoro at seeing pearls of blood flying out from her wounds.

Completely disconcerted, Zoro briskly turned and grabbed Fuu by her shoulders to force her to break her 'spell'. He violently pushed her backwards, still appalled by what had happened, and Ace caught the hazelnut-haired girl to hold her onto him.

"Wh… WHY?" shouted Zoro, shared between exasperation and concern, at seeing Fuu white as a sheet and not even able to stand on her own anymore, on top of all the mysterious slashes that were scaring her body.

Chopper had already rushed towards Fuu, as well as Nami, who was looking at Ace in disbelief, as if to ask him if that reaction was 'usual' when she was using her power.

"Why was she hurt?" insisted Zoro while slowly progressing towards Fuu, now that his wounds and frostbites had been healed, _Why? That can't be this damned thing Luffy was talking about, right? This thing about abusing her power… Don't tell me she's in that state because of that? Because she used it to heal ME?_

"Hey, Fuu?" called Zoro, really angry and worried at the same time, "Hey!"

Fuu narrowed her eyes and finally opened them, as if waking up from a nightmare. And when her eyes met Zoro's, she started crying, crying silent and stupefied tears.

_Thriller Bark… All these deep wounds… still opened inside him… they're not his! At least they shouldn't have been his! I feel so aggravated, ugh… Zoro has accepted all of Luffy's pain when Kuma had offered him this choice, enduring everything because he trusts his captain, and I'm the one sulking like a cry-baby because I don't want to keep a single promise made to my nakamas… I'm just… I'm just hopeless! Hopeless, stupid, not worthy of them…_

"So it was for Luffy… All of this pain… for Luffy… Baka!" murmured Fuu with a sad smile for Zoro.

SHIN. Zoro was gazing at the hazelnut-haired girl that was giving him a radiant smile even though she had been hurt so much to heal him.

And the swordsman lips crooked into a faint smile, as if to answer 'Look at yourself before speaking!'.

"For Luffy?" paused Nami with a surprised look, "What are you talking about, Fuu? What had Zoro done for Luffy?"

"Hum…" began Fuu with a conniving smile for the swordsman near her, "Nothing much, at least for now! But since everyone is healed now, we should all be able to go and help him, right?"

"Huh… Only that?" insisted Nami with a very suspicious look for her friend.

Zoro arched an eyebrow at seeing Fuu not yielding to Nami's questions, while, from Nami's back, a now-awake Sanji was also gazing at their hazelnut-haired nakama with a warm grin.

The episode was finally closed when Nami surrendered to go and look for some disinfectant in Chopper's little bag, promising Fuu that she had not terminated this conversation.

Fuu grinned as widely as the pain in her whole body was allowing her, and Zoro smiled back at her with one of his captivating obscure expressions, to thank her for keeping his sacrifice at Thriller Bark a secret – even though the one he would have hated the most to learn about it, a certain Ero-Cook, already knew about it.

Ace's mouth twisted a brief second at the sight, and he suddenly and swiftly lifted Fuu in his arms to present her to Chopper, breaking the exchange of smiles between her and the swordsman at the same time. Chopper was indeed preparing bandages and decoctions for Fuu with eyes full of reproaches, now that he had understood who the only person Fuu couldn't heal with her 'spells' was.

"Doctors are not supposed to put themselves in danger to save other people…" lectured he in a sulking tone while treating his hazelnut-haired nakama.

Fuu looked at their little doctor and her heart sunk a bit at the thought.

_Well… I'm not a doctor, so I guess this kind of principles does not apply to me… But I'm sorry you still need to heal me, Chopper, I would manage on my own if I could, but it's just that my healing 'spells' don't work on me…_

_I feel a bit bad for making you take care of me, especially since YOU are the heroes, all of you, and I'm only an unwanted guest supporting you, hum… But on the other hand, I find it funny to hear such a lecture from people who are famous for being reckless and stupid pirates, heehee…_

"You're not planning on going and fight after that, hum?" asked Chopper while seeing the absolutely-not-regretting face Fuu was giving him.

"She doesn't need to!" finally chimed in Ace, now too much concerned to let her be it the possibility of answering, "We'll just go and help this Baka-Otouto by ourselves!"

And everyone reported their attention on Luffy's fight, who had been pelting the Queen's ice shield with so many hits that she had had barely enough time to send him her own attacks, ice spells that Luffy had had few trouble in dodging thanks to the high-speed of his Gear Second.

But even if Luffy had the advantage, the situation hadn't progressed a lot: essentially, the Queen was unharmed, completely unscathed, and she didn't even seem tired or in difficulty, even though she had repeatedly used her power against Sanji, Zoro, Ace and now Luffy.

"Doesn't seem like he'll end up as a frozen statue, but doesn't seem like the Witch is going to lose either…" commented Ace with a shared expression.

"Even if we're four against her, there's no guarantee we'll defeat her!" added Sanji in a deep sigh, "The power of this Witch is really a damned problem, and because it's not a Devil Fruit, we don't even know how to counter it…"

_Sigh… _breathed out I unison all the seven pirates present.

"I have a solution to offer you on that particular point…" suddenly chimed in the voice of the silhouette that had just entered the Royal Courtroom.


	22. Story IV, Quest, Feather

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

…

Ice Core & Eternal Feather

…

**ICE PALACE, ROYAL COURTROOM**

"Robin?" exclaimed in unison Nami, Fuu, Ace, Zoro, Sanji and Chopper at seeing the tall silhouette of Robin in her pleated dress standing out against the bluish lit frame of the door.

"Oh… Everyone has already arrived?" commented Robin in a smile at seeing that two of the three orientation-deprived idiots were now among the little group assembled on the side-lines, while the third one was fighting against Queen Jadis a bit farther.

Robin looked at her nakamas, and frowned slightly at inwardly evaluating their current state – seeing their clothes in shambles, more especially the ones of their three fighters' although their body seemed perfectly in shape was peculiar. But everything clipped together when she saw Fuu nearby them, pale and short-of-breath by the repetitive use of her spells but still forcing a smile on her lips to welcome her.

Robin frowned a bit more but said nothing. She then shot a glance at their Senchou, who was still countering and attacking the White Witch, without big damages on his side, but without impact on the Queen either. Estimating she had time to share her findings with everyone without threatening the balance of powers at stake, she finally calmly walked towards the little group of spectators.

"Where were you, Robin?" asked Chopper – who was back in his small pet form – at seeing her kneel down near them, "We were all worried…"

"At the Palace Library…" simply answered Robin.

_As expected from Robin… _thought Fuu with a little drop of weary sweat appearing on her temple.

"A Library much older than the reign of the actual Queen, actually…" précised Robin while briefly recollecting all the works and volumes she had discovered there, books which were telling stories about a Magician, his nephew and some prophecies.

"The room from before…?" remembered Sanji, "And did you find something, Robin-san?"

"You just said you had something against the Queen's power, some kind of solution…" cut Zoro, still thinking about the words Robin had pronounced upon entering the Royal Courtroom, "What kind of solution?"

"More like a plan…" specified Robin with poise, "I discovered from where the Witch is drawing her power."

"Really?" asked Fuu while meeting Robin's eyes, really curious about this particular point – an information she did not have in her own memories from her world.

Robin paused a brief second and gazed upon Fuu, as if mentally debating with herself, before finally beginning her explanation.

"The Queen is a Sorceress from Charn, so she is of a different species than us. As such, she can naturally control magic in a somehow unlimited way…" began Robin with a calm expression.

_Sigh…_ moaned the assistance upon hearing the word 'unlimited', flashbacks of Queen Jadis popping up in their minds, flashbacks where she didn't seem the least bit exhausted and where she was coolly balancing attack and defence until she could find an opening to get rid of her opponents with an unwavering composure.

"… but…" pursued Robin with her usual poise, "She can only CONTROL magic, not CREATE it. As such, she needs to fulfil two conditions in order to make use of her power. Firstly: an artefact specialized in the kind of magic she is planning to use, and which she will use as a vessel for the magical energy. Secondly: a source of magic allowing her to catalyse the energy…"

"The Ice Dragon…" murmured Fuu, as if speaking to herself.

"Yes." confirmed Robin in a small nod.

"If that really was the source and catalyser you just mentioned, then we don't have to worry about this second condition anymore…" announced Ace with an optimist smile, "The Ice Dragon had been released and the Queen can't use it anymore."

"That's very good news for us, then." estimated Robin, her finger resting on her chin while she was considering the new piece of information, "That means that Queen Jadis is now drawing into her own magical energy to fight us. She might not realize it yet, since she had used the Ice Dragon as an unlimited source of magic for a long time now, but the repercussions of depleting her own magic might be strong enough to erase her… Of course, as long as her artefact is intact, it will absorb all the after-effects, but if we manage to destroy it, then we have high chances to destroy the Queen in the process!"

Everyone sighed of relief at hearing such a confident statement, and smiles starting springing up on the pirates face as their confidence was rising back to a reasonable level.

"And? What's this artefact you're talking about?" asked Zoro while raising an eyebrow, not convinced until he'll hear something more concrete.

"It is called the ICE CORE." announced Robin with a calm tone, even if her eyes were burning with curiosity as she was watching out for Fuu's reaction at her declaration.

But Fuu didn't seem more surprised or shocked than anyone else in the group, and Robin's mind raced at wondering if what she had concluded back in the library was only the fruits of her over-analytical imagination after all.

"An… Ice Core? And what is it?" asked Chopper while rising his eyes towards the archaeologist, "Is that alive?"

"No." calmly stated Robin while still measuring up in her mind which information she should reveal.

She looked at Fuu, but the hazelnut-haired girl only answered her with a surprised and curious expression. Robin's eyes narrowed briefly.

"No, the Ice Core is the result of the merging of the Queen's magic with a powerful magic item." explained she while occulting the details about the 'item' until she could ask about it in private to a certain girl apparently linked to it, "It resembles a jewel containing the power of Ice, and therefore she incorporated it into her own weapon."

"Her sceptre, hum?" sighed Sanji, who had had all the 'leisure' to examine the aforementioned staff from a close range when he had tried to destroy Jadis' weapon to protect his dear damsels – and a plush reindeer in bonus.

"Her sceptre." confirmed once more Robin.

"So that kind of white marble in her sceptre's head which freeze everything it touches, it's this Ice Core?" asked Sanji with a very serious expression.

"Yes." confirmed for the third time Robin.

"So if we destroy this Ice Core, it will break Queen Jadis' magic?" asked Fuu, eager and hopeful, "If we destroy it, it will break her Eternal Winter?"

"If we destroy this Ice Core, we can win?" asked Chopper, also beginning to raise his hopes.

"Yes." confirmed Robin another time with the beginning of a smile.

"I don't want to disappoint the three of you," sighed Sanji with poise, "But I already tried to destroy it several times, and with no results! Knowing that it's the key to our victory is not going to help us break it if even my most powerful kicks didn't leave a single scratch on it…"

"That's because you've got no power…" mocked Zoro in a smirk.

"Hey, Marimo!" retorted Sanji, deeply vexed, "Just to remind you, your Nitouryu had no impact on it either! So you're no better!"

"Wh…" snapped Zoro, a vein appearing on his temple, "Damn Dartboard-Eyebrow, you want to check who's the most powerful?"

"You call it, Seaweed-Head!" snarled Sanji while standing up to get in a fighting position.

_That's not really the best moment for that, is it… _thought Fuu, joined in the same thought by a troubled Ace, a panicking Chopper and a philosophe Robin, while the two rivals were already at each other's throat.

"So…" called Ace while turning his head towards Robin to pursue the conversation, "Do you know how to break this Ice Core? I kind of trust that if these two couldn't even scratch it, it must be…"

"It's not just these two!" suddenly cut a feminine voice, "Even after all of Luffy's hits, this damned sceptre is untouched…"

And Nami finally turned her head towards her nakama, momentarily averting her eyes from Luffy's fight, which she had followed ever since Robin had entered the room, not participating in the conversation before that.

"So do you have an idea, Robin?" asked Nami, a bit of worry clouding her voice.

"I have…" conceded Robin with a calm tone, "But…"

"But…?" repeated Fuu, curious, at seeing Robin pausing her explanation to glance at Luffy and Jadis, who were still fighting at the other end of the Royal Courtroom.

"Ace-san," called Robin while turning her head towards WhiteBeard's Second Commander, "I would need Senchou-san to hear the plan I'm going to explain you right now. Could you do something about the Queen?"

Ace's eyes narrowed a bit, but he stood up with a confident smile.

"At your service…" chuckled he while walking towards the two fighters, unaware of the worry eyes that were following his back.

_Ace? Wh… what is he going to…_

"Enjomo!" called Ace when he was close enough, swiftly sending a moving wall of flames towards the two opponents.

The web of fire was on Queen Jadis in no time.

"Icy Shield." called the Queen, seemingly not perturbed by this sudden intervention.

And the sphere of ice surrounded her instantly, protecting her from the flames.

Ace smiled. Jadis frowned.

The 'Enjomo' had not been sent as an attack, but rather as a net, in order to imprison temporarily the Queen and give Robin sufficient time to explain everyone her strategy. And now that WhiteBeard's Second Commander was back in full shape, he knew even Jadis will have some trouble getting rid of his flames after they had closed down on her.

Indeed, the White Witch – who had by now realised the trap she had fallen into – was now cursing the fire-mastering Son of Adam while struggling inside the sphere of intense fire to try and make it break from the inside.

"Hey, Ace!" shouted Luffy while turning his head towards his brother, really on the nerves, "It's my fight, don't butt in!"

"Heehee…" smirked Ace with a scheming expression at arriving just behind Luffy.

BAM. And he briskly grabbed his little brother and lift him from the floor before putting him on his shoulder – exactly like a potatoes bag, or rather exactly like Luffy had done with him mere minutes before.

"ACE?" roared Luffy even louder than before, "What the…? Let me go!"

But Ace flatly ignored the childish order and calmly walked towards the side-lines where everyone was waiting, his 'load' ready to get delivered.

"Hey, I can walk, what the… So kakkowarui!" snapped Luffy while struggling to get out of Ace's catch.

But against his big brother in full condition, Luffy had no more chance of winning in pure strength than when they were children. And it's without any trouble that Ace finally brought back a sulking Luffy and put him on the floor near everyone else, a very _annoying _content smile on his lips for having gotten his revenge.

"Now that everyone is there, listen carefully what I'm going to explain." announced Robin while assembling everyone around her, "We are going to … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …"

And when the Queen finally managed to make Ace's net of flames implode under a devastating ice draught, she saw with stupor that her opponents had multiplied, and not only by being more numerous, but also by cloning themselves.

"Mirage Tempo!" had called Nami while making her ClimaTact twirl, creating five distorted copies of each of her nakamas to confuse Jadis and give her less probability of hitting the real one with her sceptre.

"Now, Ken-san!" called Robin – or rather Robin's mouths which she had replicated on the shirts of the pirates with her Hana Hana no Mi, like very strange earphones allowing everyone to synchronise their attack.

Zoro dashed towards the Queen, accompanied by his four clones, his three katanas back in their sheaths but his hands ready on two of their hilts.

"Icy Statue!" screeched the Queen at realising something was going on.

She targeted one of the mirages with her sceptre, and Zoro's clone turned into a cloud of frost before vanishing completely.

"Nitouryu Iai: Rashomon!" called Zoro while unsheathing at light speed, his attack focused on the head of Jadis' sceptre.

Being back to full puissance was definitely a good thing for the swordsman since his attack had the desired impact. : under the strength of the Zoro's hit, the white wood which was enclosing the Ice Core split brutally and finally exploded in a myriad of splinters, under the rictus of rage of the Queen.

"Ace-san!" called Robin's voice in her multiplied mouths, temporising the next step of the attack.

Ace swiftly appeared behind the Queen, accompanied by his four clones.

"Enjomo…" called he softly while sending a small fire-ball toward the Witch.

Flabbergasted by the lack of strength of the attack – especially from someone who had managed to find an opening and come so close to her – Queen Jadis lifted her sceptre to intercept the small bubble of flames.

Ace was smiling.

Jadis was frowning more and more deeply, wondering what he could expect from such a small fire-ball.

Ace was still smiling, his eyes glancing at the sceptre with satisfaction.

And Jadis realised with horror that the spark hadn't been intended against her, but on the contrary had perfectly succeeded in surrounding the Ice Core with a thin yet resistant screen of flames.

"Cook-san!" called Robin's voice in the mouth-earphones, transmitting to an already-waiting Sanji the instruction to pursue the plan.

"Diable Jambe: Flambage Shot!" called Sanji while sending a lateral enflamed kick in the now-vulnerable artefact in the head of the Queen's sceptre.

Powerless, the White Witch could only gaze at the Ice Core when it rifted, cracked, and finally crumbled, without letting a single frostbite on the leg of the attacker – Ace's screen of fire having deadened the powers of the ice jewel.

The broken pieces of the white sphere that was the Ice Core fell on the floor with a noise of tingling marble, leaving Jadis without weapon… and without magical barrier to prevent her energy from being drained anymore.

In answer to the loss of power, the Queen's face seemed to freeze, and turned a snowy white. Her skin, her hair, her eyes… her whole body now resembled a human-shaped snow-man, while Jadis was muttering impossible-to-hear cursing words at realizing what was happening to her.

"Senchou-san! The final blow!" called Robin's voice, the message being relayed by her replicated mouths.

Luffy was already ready, his fist still on the floor and his whole body smoking of vapour created by the pumping movement he had used to dope himself.

"Gomu Gomu no… Jet Gatling!" called Luffy while sending a multitude of punches towards the Queen.

The snowish-white Witch exploded into a myriad of snow-flakes, which slowly fell back on the floor when Luffy's attack calmed down.

The small crystals of ice melted away, bringing away with them the last traces of Queen Jadis.

"Target destroyed." simply announced Robin with an expressionless tone, before resorbing all her duplicated mouths to mark the end of the operation.

'_Target destroyed'… aww, come on…? _thought Fuu with a huge drop of perplexed sweat appearing on her temple, _You just defeated the Witch for good, a bit more of enthusiasm, for God's sake!_

And as if to answer the silent comment, Luffy's voice echoed across the vast Royal Courtroom:

"WE DID IT!" shouted he while raising his two fists to the ceiling in a glorious pose.

He then turned around to shot his stupid happy grin to everyone. Nami smiled in return and run towards him. Zoro, Ace and Sanji smiled faintly and walked also in his direction to share their happiness in his shouts of victory.

"Hum…" called a little voice near Fuu.

The hazelnut-haired girl looked at the one who had spoken and was fidgeting under contradictory feelings.

"Do you think we can go with them?" asked Chopper while raising his eyes towards Fuu, "We didn't do anything so I feel useless, a bit…"

Fuu's eyes widened a brief second under guilt but she swept it away to bring back a comforting smile on her lips.

"Really? Hum, I think it's mainly valid for me…" commented she with a mocking smile, "After all, you'd better run to them and see if Sanji's leg is alright after the hit he has given to the Ice Core. And you also need to examine Luffy and tend to the wounds he's received during his fight with the Queen… So you have a lot of work Chopper, what could we do without an amazing doctor like you?"

"Y… you think you can just flatter me like that, you yaro? Baka!" exclaimed Chopper while dancing of joy under the compliment, before grabbing his little backpack and rushing towards the others.

Fuu fought back a giggle and glanced at everyone celebrating their victory with shared feelings. But at seeing Luffy and Nami happily grinning at each other, she just let joy take it over everything else and smiled widely.

"Are you not joining them, Fuu?" asked Robin who had walked closer to her friend.

"Hum, you neither, it would seem…" cunningly retorted Fuu with a smile for the archaeologist.

"Actually, I wanted to show you something." explained she while holding out to Fuu some marble fragments that her 'Slalom Vine' had picked up on the battlefield and brought back to her.

_The remnants of the Ice Core? _wondered Fuu at contemplating the pieces in Robin's hands.

But Robin was looking at her with insistence, and with an eerie glow in her eyes, as if she knew something that the others were ignoring, but above all as if she knew Fuu also shared this missing information.

Fuu graciously arched an eyebrow and finally extended her fingers towards the rests of the ice jewel.

FLASH. At the very second Fuu's fingertips brushed the marble fragments, the Ice Core seemed to react to her touch and projected an intense flash of white light.

_Wh…? _panicked Fuu at seeing the pieces of the Ice Core seeming to melt inside the light and assemble.

And when the light finally resorbed, Fuu finally glanced at the newly created item: an eerie feather of light adorned with a heart-shaped rune was glowing inside her hands.

_Wh…? IMPOSSIBLE! This Feather? But… nonsense! It can't be…_

Fuu was completely hypnotized by the Feather of Light faintly floating inside her palms, and which had started to irradiate a soft white light around her and Robin.

Attracted – or alerted depending on the people – by Fuu's discovery, Luffy, Chopper, Nami, Sanji, Zoro and Ace were converging towards her and Robin, either wanting their share of fun or worrying for the one who was apparently holding on to a dangerous object.

And when everyone finally reached Fuu, it was only to assist to the impressive unfurling of magic of the Feather all around them: the floor of frozen rock, the walls with icy-stained windows, the columns of bluish ice, the whole Ice Palace was being enclosed inside the magic of the eerie feather and was slowly losing its veil of white frost which had been covering it until now.

The aura of soft light emanating from the Feather of Light gently spread on the whole mountain, the whole island, resorbing all the snow and all the ice: the countryside gradually came back to life, growing green again, and slowly, time started to flow again on Fimbul.

_Spring… succeeded to Winter… _thought Fuu while raising her eyes towards the shattered ceiling of the Royal Courtroom, across which was now shining the warm light of the sun reborn after a never-ending frozen night.

"All trace of what the Queen had created with her power is disappearing." commented with poise Robin while contemplating the change of scenery all around them, "Her curse is broken for good."

"Yes/ Yeah/ Hum…" nodded in unison all the others, smiling at finally seeing the sun rise on this world delivered from its Hundred Years Winter.

FLASH. But the white aura which had been resorbing slowly towards the Feather stopped half-way.

_Huh? _wondered Fuu at feeling the soft white light wind round her and her nakamas, with still the same power of dissolution.

"What…?" exclaimed Nami.

"Hey…" murmured Chopper.

"Bah?" gasped Luffy.

"Tsk!" grumbled Zoro.

"But…" tilted Sanji.

"That's…" screeched Ace.

"Yare yare…" smiled Robin.

_Tell me it's a mistake! _inwardly screamed Fuu at realising that the magical aura was slowly replacing theirs clothes – outfits that Fuu was now remembering they had been created by the Queen's magic – into a soft veil of white light while the Feather was gradually dissolving them.

_NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_

FLASH. In a final blinding flash of light, the Feather finished its 'task' and absorbed the last traces of the White Witch's power: the three long pleated dresses of Robin, Nami and Fuu and the white suits of the guys – and the little reindeer.

"Kyaaa!" CLONG. FUSH. 'Dos Fleurs" chimed in like a ballet of four steps.

"Kyaaa!" had screamed Fuu and Nami at realizing their clothes had just disappeared.

CLONG, had unhooked the jaws of the four guys under the same notice.

FUSH, had instinctively reacted Fuu by releasing her power to make herself, Nami and Robin invisible.

"Dos Fleurs" had also reacted Robin while making duets of hands appear on the guys' heads to cover their eyes.

SHIN. A small second of silence fell on the situation.

"Hum… Fuu, Robin, I'm grateful, don't take me wrong, but…" began Nami, her cheeks shared between an annoyed flush and an embarrassed blush, "But if you were going to make us invisible, Fuu, I would have appreciated if you had also included the guys in your 'spell'…"

"I… I was… just telling myself the same thing…" mumbled Fuu, blushing furiously of complete embarrassment.

"Oh, are you not appreciating the show, Kokkaishi-san, Fuu?" asked Robin with a teasing smile.

_Are you kidding? _cried inwardly Fuu and Nami, but with different follow-ups, _How embarrassing…/What if they ask me money in return, this time…_

Not even daring to turn her eyes towards Ace, Zoro, Sanji and Luffy, Fuu started whispering another spell, her cheeks still beat red.

_Waaaahhh… I wished this invisibility 'spell' on impulse, but when thinking about it, new clothes for everyone is way smarter… And the final result way less embarrassing!_


	23. Story IV, Quest, Spring

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH THE SNOWS OF TIME**

…

Spring's Arrival

…

**NEW WORLD, FIMBUL**

"Hey, come on…" was sulking Luffy with a pout, "What happened in this big light thing?"

BONG. Nami's fist had hit – harshly – Luffy's head leaving a big red and smoking bump on it.

"Don't bring that up again, I said!" shouted Nami while baring her teeth, before averting her eyes and walking away from him.

The rest of the spectators hadn't answered Luffy's question either, still feeling odd about what had happened…

Of course, after the magic dissolution of their clothes, Fuu had created new garments with her power, so everything could have tried and pretend to have not happened, would it have been for Luffy. Because the little magic trick had happened nearly simultaneously, and Fuu had also replicated their previous outfits nearly exactly the same way as they were before – but bright new and not in shambles –, and it had resulted in a deeply perplexed Luffy, who had started sniffing his new white vest with a dumbfounded expression.

And after having determined the jacket was not the same as the previous one – it seemed that Fuu's magic wasn't leaving the same smell as the Queen's magic – he had concluded that something had happened. And so he had naturally asked everyone if the dream-like moment of 'seeing everyone's clothes disappear – the girls' dresses too – just before everything became dark and then when the light was on again, the clothes were back but everyone seemed to have their cheeks redder than usual' was really not a dream in the end.

The comment had made Robin chuckle a lot, but not the others.

Fuu and Nami had immediately and silently dashed ahead of everyone – the first one blushing like it shouldn't be allowed to, and the second annoyed and flushed with anger – trying really hard not to remember the aforementioned 'happening'.

Sanji had been lost in his own thoughts with some perverted smiles springing up on his lips from times to others, probably trying to burn in his memory every detail of the scene he had witnessed.

Chopper was still perplexed, not understanding why everyone looked ill-at-ease, and was now asking Robin to explain him why was that.

And on their sides, Zoro and Ace had strangely adopted the same behaviour, dragging at the queue of the group with the childish expressions of two kids sulking after having been caught in an embarrassing situation.

_Don't think about it… stop recollecting it… don't remember it! Grr… I feel like my cheeks will never cool down! _thought Fuu before stopping abruptly her train of thoughts at the same time as her feet when she reached the top of the hill.

Her mind suddenly cleared up of everything else to see only one thing.

_How beautiful!_

"Nami…" called Fuu in a breath without even being able to turn her eyes towards her nakama, completely mesmerized by what she was seeing, "Look…"

"Huh?" tilted Nami before finally contemplating the scenery in front of them, her eyes widening in the same mesmerized expression as Fuu.

The hills between the Palace and the village were shining verdantly like an endless emerald field, glittering timidly under the rejuvenated sun of Fimbul.

Snow-drops, crocuses and other spring flowers of a thousand colours were sprinkling the valley with a myriad of shimmering nuances, while the trees were gradually showing off their tender green buds.

Upon reaching the top of the hill where they were now standing, all the pirates stopped and held back their breath – even Luffy – in front of the magical scenery displaying in front of their eyes.

The wind blew, softly…

A warm breeze with the smell of Spring…

Smiles started to spring up on everyone's faces, before turning into wide grins of pure happiness…

And in a final complete bliss, everyone started running down the grassy hill with bursts of joy and laughter, Luffy, Chopper and Nami far ahead.

"WE DID IT!" was shouting Luffy while jumping everywhere with his usual overjoyed grin.

"We destroyed the Hundred Years Winter!" was gleaming Nami with delight while twirling around in the warm vernal air.

"Nature is alive again!" exclaimed Chopper while rolling in the grass and sharing his joy with a passing-by squirrel.

_Yes… Everything is for the best, thanks to everyone… _ thought Fuu with a pure and sincere smile while softly touching under her fingertips the belt which was holding her long pleated dress into place – belt under which she had slipped the Feather of Light.

**

* * *

FIMBUL, BEAVERS' ONSEN**

"HEY! Everyone!" called Luffy with huge gestures upon reaching the inn of their beaver friends, "We're back!"

"THEY'RE BACK!" shouted of joy all the pirates and fantastic creatures present there while turning their delighted faces towards the Mugiwaras, Fuu and Ace.

The village seemed safe and sound, to everyone's relief.

Ace met up with his nakamas with a warm grin: the WhiteBeard Pirates had disembarked upon hearing the news that their First and Second Commander might have been kidnapped by an evil Witch, and had most readily joined the centaurs, pegasuses, minotaurs and nymphs in their fight against the detachments of Royal Guards.

The battle had been endless, until an impressive wave of soft white light had reached the village, breaking up the Hundred Years Winter curse and melting the remaining Guards of Ice into puddles of irony water, soon absorbed by a rejuvenated nature. Such a sign had comforted everyone into believing in the Mugiwaras' victory, and pirates and creatures had been expecting their return with impatient happiness.

So the reunion was enthusiast, joyful and noisy, especially at witnessing they were all sound except Luffy, himself only having a couple of bruises for being the only one who had not been healed by Fuu's power back at the Palace.

The hazelnut-haired girl gazed with a soft smile at her nakamas running towards Usopp, Brook and Franky – who had also disembarked to join forces with the fantastic creatures – and share noisily the tales of their respective exploits.

"Ah, Fuu!" suddenly exclaimed Usopp at seeing her walking towards them, completely cutting his own story at remembering something important, "Your bro asked me to tell you to call him when you'll be back."

And with a grin, he put Clow's communication mirror into Fuu's hands, before resuming his big story-telling to a star-shaped eyed Chopper and a laughing Luffy.

_Sounds like the battle is not finished for me… _sighed Fuu with half-an-amused smile for the small mirror gleaming in her hands, _I'm sure he's going to chew me again…_

And she discreetly escaped the How-the-Great-Usopp-sama-destroyed-a-thousand-battalions-of-Guards conversation to go and find a quiet place to discuss with her brother.

She glanced back at the big commotion the news of their victory had created in the whole village before slowly walking into the nearby forest.

POF. Clow's face popped up in the round mirror when Fuu activated it to contact him.

"Morning, Neechan!" began the voice of Clow with a faint smile.

"Morning…" answered Fuu in an amused smile at thinking her night had flew her by without her noticing, "Hum, I know you don't like to appear in person, but seriously, speaking to you through a mirror is not agreeable… Can't you make a little effort, huh?"

"You can't seriously be hoping for me to come and freeze to death at Fimbul, right?" retorted Clow with a mocking expression.

"It's not Winter anymore here: Luffy and the others defeated the White Witch, should I remind you?" declared Fuu in a lecturing tone, perfectly knowing that her brother already knew all of what had happened, "And also… something appeared…"

Fuu slowly drew the Feather of Light from her belt and presented it to her brother, just above the mirror.

"Do you mind explaining me what a Feather from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles is doing HERE?" began Fuu with a calm tone despite her boiling curiosity, "Never minding the whole paradox on this island… I mean, how Narnia's Story can be replicated here, completely mixing up with One Piece scenario?"

"I had told you my little conjuring trick had disrupted this Universe…" sighed Clow while averting his eyes from his sister's sulking expression.

"That's not only One Piece Story we are talking about here!" remarked Fuu while graciously arching an eyebrow, "Are you telling me the paradoxes are not ONLY including One Piece Universe?"

"The world of fan-fictions is endless, you know…" explained Clow in a weary smile, "I've been chasing paradoxes for a few months, and I already saw that the discrepancies are not only involving Oda-Sensei's work… To make it short, the whole fictional world has been turned upside down: novels, mangas, movies or video-games… every fandom just blended inside the huge paradox we've caused, using the breach I created to escape their own universe and invade this one…"

"I think this very same Oda-Sensei is going to be shocked beyond words if he witnesses all of these unwanted guests inside his Story…" mocked Fuu while crooking a smile.

_And my dear little brother who is worshipping this very same Oda-Sensei is probably having a hard time too, hihihi…_

"I know that!" snapped Clow with a vein popping on his forehead, rather annoyed at the comment, "That's why I've been travelling for months now: to fix up this huge mess! I can't let this goes on like that, my pride as an author is at stake!"

_I was expecting that much… _inwardly laughed Fuu.

"I've been travelling to gather these damned Feathers in order to use them to fill in the breaches between Universes… I've been travelling ever since we first arrived in this World to detect and rectify all these paradoxes… And you… YOU…" began Clow while crossing his arms on his chest to try and control his irascibility, "While I am travelling to the four corners of the Five Seas, YOU, you who is just having a nice little cruise with the heroes, you who didn't even know how these paradoxes were working, you just end up on one and solve it BY CHANCE!"

Clow was now boiling, multiples veins of annoyed anger bumping on his temples.

"Sor… sorry…" apologized Fuu with a huge drop of sweat on her temple, while trying not to laugh at her brother's upset expression.

"This world is just unfair…" finally sighed Clow when cooling down.

"Hum, well…" tried Fuu with a shared expression, "But… oh! Let's see the positive aspect of it: you got a Feather back without having to do anything… Besides, you said it was by chance, but probably not! I mean, you are an author, so you should now: in this world, there's no coincidence!"

TILT. Clow reacted at the remark and raised an eyebrow. It wasn't the first time he and his sister were having a debate about fate, and he had been obliged to concede her a victory because of his author's point of view. But it didn't mean he couldn't resume the fight…

"Girls and their stupid conception of destiny, tsk!" sneered he with a smirk – perfectly safe on the other side of the mirror, which was protecting him from the punch his sister was generally answering him when he was mocking her with such provocations.

TILT. Fuu frowned deeply at the comment but kept her cool, not wanting to grant her opponent the victory of seeing her upset.

"Oh? Well, sorry to have a brain and to use it… It's true you guys don't know how to do so…" smiled she in a very provocative way.

SNAP. Clow's face hardened, and he kept silent for a bit, before finally surrendering.

"So…" sighed he at resuming the original – and more important – topic of conversation, "You're suggesting that it's not a coincidence if these paradoxes are ending up on Luffy's and the others' road?"

"I think it is not…" declared Fuu with her index resting on her chin, trying to analyse what had happened previously, "After all, Queen Jadis' Ice Core transformed into Tsubasa Feather when I touched it: not when the Witch was defeated, not when Robin picked it up… but when it came in contact with ME, someone from the real world…"

"The paradoxes are not attracted by our presence if that's what you're implying…" answered Clow with a world-weary tone, having already tried the same approach in the past, "But you do have a point here: we're the only ones who can reveal the Feather's existence. Actually, as long as the Feather is merging with a Story from another fandom, I can't detect it, even with my Kari Kari no Mi… It's a very complex paradox, what you call 'Cores'…"

"Huh?" titled Fuu, surprised and a bit panicked by the declaration "What do you mean, 'complex'? No, before that, there are other 'Cores'? And, wait, how come you couldn't detect such a huge paradox before but now you can?"

"I don't know!" ranted Clow while shrugging his shoulders to cut down his sister in her series of questions, "But as you said, it might not be a coincidence if these huge paradoxes end up on Luffy and the others' road… It might mean that the Story is trying to rectify itself on its own… like a body curing itself without any exterior help… Well, somehow, it's not really odd to think of it as such: after all, every Story is alive!"

"And here comes the author speech again!" laughed Fuu, an amused smile floating on her lips, "So I assume the all-mighty author you are would like to retrieve the Feather now, for whatever conjuring trick he's using it to close down passages between Universes, hihihi…"

_After all, if Paradoxes are embodying into elements from other fandoms, I guess a Tsubasa Feather is the best way to symbolize the link between alternative universes, huh…_

"Please…" grinned Clow while holding out his hand towards the mirror's edge.

TILT. Fuu's eyes widened at the sight, and she glanced at the Feather with circumspection.

_He wants me to give him the Feather THROUGH the mirror? Is he kidding me? No, wait, Clow can use his mirrors to cross between two places, but it works for objects too?_

A bit – a lot – baffled but not against trying this method, Fuu softly put the Feather on the mirror, which nearly instantly absorbed it, to the utter amazement of the hazelnut-haired girl.

"Thanks." smiled Clow who had now the Feather in his hand on the other side of the mirror, "Using it to resorb the paradox will only take a second."

"WAIT!" called Fuu, suddenly panicking at remembering what had happened when the two Robins had merged, "Wait, with which consequences?"

And she glanced back worriedly at all her nakamas who were already partying to celebrate their victory with the fantastic creatures.

"Don't worry like that or you'll end up bald, hahaha… " laughed Clow from the other side of the mirror, "It kind of won't change anything for them when I'll solve this paradox!"

Fuu pouted a bit at the first part of the comment but the second quieted her mind.

"After all, since we are the only ones knowing there's something wrong with this part of the Story, there's no reason for their memory to be altered…" added Clow to comfort a bit his sister, "So even if the style is different from usual, for everyone in this world it will just sound like a normal adventure. I'm already anticipating the expressions the next pirates will wear on their faces at arriving on this island and hearing that Mugiwara no Luffy was the long-expected Son of Adam from the Prophecy, hahaha…"

"Hum, well, that's…" muttered vaguely Fuu with a huge drop of weary sweat appearing on her head.

"Oh, and since Luffy is still the hero for this adventure, I'm feeling obliged to grant you the Jury Special Award for your attempt of moderating the use of your Hoshi Hoshi no Mi…" softly teased Clow, "Well, it's the thought that counts… because respecting to the results…"

"Wh… WHAT?" nearly choked on Fuu at seeing the mocking smirk on her brother's lips, "You're… you're too much! I… I tried my best, you know! I used my power only to help them: I never stole the spotlight from your heroes! And I kept my promise with Luffy until the end, no matter how hard it was… and I… I…"

"Hum, not too sure about the last part: you nearly used it, at the end…" retorted Clow, silencing his sister right away while she was remembering the shining energy in her hand at Luffy's entrance during Ace and Jadis' fight, "Oh, and instead of letting them being beaten up by the Queen, couldn't you have just neutralized her by making her sleep? Or maybe by making her sceptre slip from her hands? THAT would have been helpful…"

SHIN. A small silence fell.

Clow was still sighing in a mocking pose, as if very weary of his own sister's stupidity.

Fuu was still shocked, slowly assimilating the remark.

"I BEG YOUR PARDON?" shouted she when finally managing to react, her face a picture of full incomprehension, "You would have killed me for ruining the story with such a stupid, overly easy, anti-interesting way of ending the fight!"

_And… and seriously, what do you think people feel when seeing their nakamas being beaten to the pulp right in front of them?_

"Well, most probably…" grinned Clow with a very mighty smirk, "I would have chewed you hard-core, at least! But come on, you've got to agree it's so stunning to think that you have an absolute power but that you don't even manage to use it the right way!"

And on this note, Clow busted into laughter, to Fuu's bitter pique, not knowing anymore if she should feel deeply vexed or angry.

"Tsk… that's so easy for you to say that afterwards…" sulked she, red with shame and resentment.

_That's just the kind of thing you can say when the battle is finished and when you have time to think calmly about things… just the kind of point of view of an omniscient narrator… Tsk, it's way more complicated to control your emotions when you're deep into action than when you're peacefully writing a story from behind a laptop!_

_Do you even know how it feels to have adrenaline blurring all your senses and just making you wish to keep out of harm? Grr, I'm only human! A normal human! Don't take me for what I'm not…_

"Oh well…" finally stopped laughing Clow, "Since you've still deserved your share of partying, you should go back with everyone… Oh, and before I forgot, I learned recently that we are also bound by the laws of 'Spoilers' here, so be careful!"

POF. And before Fuu could utter a single syllable, Clow had switched off his mirror, leaving a dumbfounded Fuu, still perplexed at the last remark but somehow happy to have heard that her brother somehow approved of her way of using her Hoshi Hoshi no Mi during that adventure.

_I guess I can't rejoice completely yet, but at least, not enduring an endless lecture is somewhat encouraging…_

And she swiftly slipped the mirror in the belt holding her long white pleated dress before leaving the shades of the tree and going to reunite with her nakamas and the inhabitants, who were celebrating the defeat of the White Witch with the chiming of Kampais, loads of hydromel and delicious food, and music and dancing.

**

* * *

FIMBUL, VILLAGE MAIN PLAZA**

"LET'S PARTY!" exclaimed Luffy in a joyful shout while dragging everyone around the huge fire which had been lit up at the centre of the plaza.

Everyone was present around the hearth, tankards in their hands and laughing smiles on everybody's lips: the Mugiwaras, the WhiteBeard's Pirates, the fantastic creatures and animals of Fimbul, everyone!

"It reminds me of Skypiea!" laughed Nami while meeting up with Luffy, Usopp and Chopper is the round of dancers.

Brook had taken the lead of an orchestra of animals and spirits from the forest, while Franky was organising the supplies for the huge fire. Zoro was drinking on a bench with some WhiteBeard's Pirates, while Ace was doing the same a bit farther with Marco and the other Commanders. Sanji was already skirt-chasing, as usual, but with as much success as usual.

And Fuu met up with everyone when the party was already all fired up. But she preferred to join Robin on a tree-trunk bench at some distance from the dancers where another guest soon joined them, also preferring the side-lines to the round of dancers.

"It does have been numerous years since our Kingdom had not hosted such a joyful occasion…" commented Aslan with his calm and warm voice, "It does really touch our hearts to see smiles on everyone's lips! And your leader incontestably knows how to carry people away in a common feeling of shared happiness…"

Robin and Fuu smiled at following Aslan's gaze for Luffy who was still attracting/dragging everyone on the dance-floor.

"Hum…" nodded Fuu in an amused giggle, "Even when we're used to it, it's still nice…"

"Nice… but dangerous at the same time…" added Robin with one of her most mysterious smile.

"Dangerous?" repeated Aslan, a hint of surprise sipping into the noble King's voice, "For which reason, might I ask?"

But the answer came without a need for words for the majestic Lion.

"GROAR…" let escape Aslan of stunned stupefaction when two arms of gum grabbed him before making him fly in mid-air at full speed and finally forced him to join the dance around the fire.

"For THAT reason…" laughed Fuu and Robin at seeing the Lion so suddenly catapulted onto the dance-floor.

"Hihihi… There's only Luffy who would do that to a King…" giggled Fuu at the sight.

"Most definitely." approved Robin in an amused smile.

Robin's eyes then turned towards Fuu – who was still happily gazing at the scene around the fire – and she hesitated a second to ask her the question which was burning her lips. She glanced at Clow's mirror which was partially sticking out from Fuu's iridescent belt and fixed her resolve.

"Say, Fuu…" began Robin with her usual calm composure.

"Yes?" enquired Fuu while turning her head towards the archaeologist, still half-laughing at the show of Luffy trying to show King Aslan how to dance.

"The Feather of Light…" began Robin, startling Fuu right from the beginning, "It's one of the things your brother Clow-san and yourself are searching in order to solve what you call 'Paradoxes', am I right?"

Robin had spoken with a calm yet resolved tone, with assurance yet with leaving Fuu an opening.

The dark-haired woman was perfectly remembering the pattern on this Feather, a pattern also present a brief moment in her blurry memory, amidst images of Fuu taking care of her as a child and images of her cabin on the Moby Dick.

And when she had spied on Fuu's and Clow's conversation, the Hoshi Hoshi no Mi had not been the only topic of conversation, so now time had come for her to ask for answers.

Fuu gulped down with difficulty and bit her inferior lips, her mind rushing to try and find an escape road out.

_Oh my… I hadn't thought she would bring this topic up so soon… And besides the Feather, she seems to have learned a lot of things… too many things… Her wandering ears are definitely a problem…_

_Tsk! What was I hoping, Robin is probably one of the most sagacious people of this world, of course she made her own conclusions and went to search for the missing pieces of the puzzle… Hoping to delude her was naïve of me! I think I'd better try and tell her a bit about the situation rather than waiting for her to discover it on her own… It would be better, especially if I want to find a way to hide our origins from her…_

"Th… that's correct." finally answered Fuu, looking Robin straight in her eyes with a very serious expression, "I guess you overheard my brother and me talking about it, but… that was something we didn't wish anyone of you to learn about."

"I kind of realised that…" pursued Robin with a soft yet sad smile, "And why is that?"

SHIN. Fuu's eyes widened at the question, a bit shocked without really knowing why the question had surprised her that much.

"Hum, well… It's a problem caused by my brother's power, but caused because of me… So it's our responsibilities to solve it. I don't want to trouble you all with it…" finally managed to explain Fuu with a sad smile, "Moreover, I guess it could have dreadful consequences for you if you were to learn the details behind all of that…"

_How could I ever tell people I care for that they are only fictional heroes evolving into a predetermined Story…? _thought Fuu with a strong bitter after-taste invading her mouth.

She then sighed deeply to get rid of the acidity between her lips and glanced over the huge fire around which were partying her nakamas.

"I definitely do not want to risk anything that could change the current situation… Besides, even if you helped us so much to defeat the Witch and get the Ice Core back, it seems only my brother and I can change it into a Feather and use it to solve the problems we've caused… But if Luffy knew, he would want to help, and he would feel bad for not being able to help more than that… so I prefer not to involve you all into it…" murmured Fuu while dropping her face under the shadow of her hair, the weight of her own uselessness more than eager to remind her how it felt to be powerless into helping out one's nakamas.

Robin gazed upon the sad and guilty expression of Fuu, and she thought about Ohara, about her own mission of Poneglyphs archaeologist. She couldn't help but feel a similitude but she didn't want her friend to follow the path she had herself chosen.

"Sometimes…" began Robin while averting her eyes from Fuu to glance at Luffy and the others around the fire, "Sometimes it's not possible to share your burden with others, because it's a duty or a knowledge that is only yours. So sometimes we keep quiet because we think they won't be able to help even if they knew… but that's just an excuse!"

TILT. Fuu's eyes widened at the declaration and she raised her eyes to look at her friend.

"It's only an excuse…" repeated Robin with moved eyes that were still following the Mugiwaras' dancing shadows around the fire, "Even if the people around us can't help us literally, they can always support us. Encouraging us, trusting us… unconditionally… without asking for anything in return… And that's worth more than any knowledge they could have!"

Robin was now smiling widely, smiling brightly, and Fuu couldn't help but smile in return.

"It's true…" whispered she with a touched expression.

"So, in spite of being able to help you concretely, I'll always be there to listen to you." added Robin in a conniving tone, "It must be hard on you, not being able to speak about this quest to anyone, am I right?"

"Hum…" smiled heart-fully Fuu, "Then will you also speak about your Quest? About the Poneglyphs on Pluton and Poseidon?"

TILT. The remark seemed to startle Robin, but she kept her cool and answered in a friendly and light tone.

"Ooh, and how do you know about these names?" asked she with an amused yet perplexed smile.

"So… sorry… it was kind of low from me…" admitted Fuu, embarrassed at having teased her friend in such an unfair way, "It's just, well, my brother and I know a lot of things about this world and…"

ZAAA. Fuu didn't have time to utter a single syllable more: her sentence was immediately interrupted by the intense aching of multiple slashes that deeply lacerated her body, making her want to scream out of pain.

_KYAAA! i_nwardly screamed Fuu, _It burns… Ugh… It hurts so much! What the… why…? Where is that coming from…? I didn't use my power, so why?_

And without knowing why, the last sentence from her brother popped in her mind, the flashback cooling down a bit the burning of her senses.

_Bound by… the law of… __'spoilers'… SPOILERS? What the…? Spoilers, tell me it's a joke… I know fictional fandoms are really harsh about spoilers but don't tell me these it-hurts-as-Hell slashes are some spoiler warnings?_

"Fuu?" was panicking Robin, having already jumped on her feet to look around worriedly for the culprit behind this attack but without detecting anyone.

"It… it's fine Robin, it's me… it's fine…" panted Fuu while grinding her teeth not to scream of pain when finally opening her lips.

_It's just me… It seems like I said something considered as spoilers and the Story is punishing me, tsk… I'd better hold my tongue in the future, it hurts even more than when my Devil Fruit is running low in energy…_

"Fuu, are you okay?" asked once more Robin while examining the deep slash into Fuu's flesh and frowning even more deeply at realizing that these wounds had come out of nowhere, but above all at realizing Fuu hadn't let out a single scream despite the cut bleeding so heavily, "I'm going to call Isha-san!"

BAM. But Fuu grabbed Robin by a pleat of her dress and brought her back on the bench.

"I'm fine!" lied she while slowly releasing her power into the silver aura of her healing 'spell' to close down the wounds, "I'm fine, please don't alert anyone! I was at fault for intending to reveal something I wasn't supposed to say…"

SHIN. Robin looked at Fuu with worried and dumbfounded eyes, not integrating how speaking about something could cause such injuries while no one else was there to dispense them.

"Because you spoke about it?" repeated Robin, as if speaking to herself.

The dark-haired woman watched over Fuu as the last stains of blood were disappearing under the 'spell', feeling some regrets at remembering she had been the one to encourage her to speak.

"I'm really sorry…" finally said she with an apologetic smile for her friend.

"It's fine, come on!" tried to cheer her up Fuu, her usual smile back on her lips now that the wounds had been erased, "Besides, I'm starting to get used to it, this was nothing!"

_Well, my Hoshi Hoshi no Mi is regularly back-firing on me, so… And these 'Spoilers' slashes have at least the advantage of not being cause by my abusing my Devil Fruit so I can use a 'spell' to heal them…_

Robin forced a smile back on her lips at seeing Fuu trying to comfort her though she was the one hurt, and finally sighed with a resigned expression.

"I hope you are feeling better, then, because Senchou-san is currently waving at us," added Robin while pointing at Luffy and their other nakamas dancing around the fire, "And I'm afraid he might use the same method as for Aslan-ousama to make us come and join the dance…"

"Hum…" paused Fuu with a faint laugh, "I think we might join with our own free will then!"

And Fuu stood up from the bench and followed Robin to reunite with the others.

**

* * *

A FEW MINUTES LATER**

A mere minutes later, Fuu suddenly realised Robin was missing, the archaeologist having just greeted everyone before slipping away towards the spectators' benches, which made Fuu quite flabbergasted at the diversion tactic used by her friend.

_Humph… She's the one dragging me here but she left nearly immediately afterwards?_

Fuu glanced over her nakamas who were celebrating their victory against the White Witch with shared feelings. What Robin had told her about trust was slowly sinking into her heart, but at seeing Luffy and Chopper's usual stupid dances, she felt like putting everything else aside.

_After all, whichever world I'm in, I like dancing, especially with my friends…_

And she joined the little group of over-excited pirates twirling around the fire, decided to enjoy herself with her nakamas.

A few minutes later, she had already succeeded, joking around with Nami at seeing Usopp's new dance steps, laughing at Chopper's chopsticks show, and trying to avoid Luffy's elastic arms which were still rounding up dancers – more or less volunteering to join.

Brook was still leading the orchestra, and he had begun a new song from his composition.

_Hey… That sounds like a rock song! A bit jazzy but still! If we were back home, we would dance a rock n' roll on that, but… Hum, well, and even here, why not?_

"Nami!" called Fuu with a bright eager smile, "I know some dance steps on music like that, are you interested?"

And she held her hand towards Nami.

"A dance?" tilted Nami, a bit surprised to see Fuu offering her hand for a dance.

"Yep, a dance from where I'm coming from… But we need to be two for it, you'll see!" answered Fuu with a grin.

And under Fuu's lead, the two girls started their rock n' roll, with boisterous turns and passes. Nami had quickly grasped the concept and was laughing whole-heartedly, soon followed by Fuu who hadn't danced like that since an eternity.

All the guys were now rounding up around then, quite curious about the dance in question.

"Shishishi! Looks so fun!" declared Luffy at seeing his two nakamas' dance and trying to imitate them on the side.

"Well, originally it's supposed to be danced in couple!" smiled Fuu while shooting a calculating glance at Nami then Luffy, "And the guy is the one leading!"

And in her new pass, Fuu swiftly made her wrist turn around Nami's head before letting go of her friend's hand and sending her twirling into Luffy's arms.

"Luffy, pass!" grinned she at seeing he had perfectly caught his partner back.

And Luffy didn't need to be told the same thing twice, he had already resumed the rock n' roll, oddly well for someone who had had no knowledge at it a mere hour before that.

_He's really gifted for observing moves and replicating them! It's even a bit depressing to see him being so good at it! _Thought Fuu while repressing a laugh at seeing her two nakamas – newly lovebirds – dancing together while exchanging overjoyed grins.

"Fuu-chan! Can you teach that dance too?" asked Sanji while holding out his hand towards Fuu, strangely serious for once.

"Of course!" smiled Fuu with her most welcoming smile, overjoyed as every time she was dancing.

Sanji felt like he had heard angels ringing bells above his head, and they both began their rock n' roll.

Fuu had managed to teach Sanji's the basic steps despite his lack of focus – his mind probably wondering on every pretty girl he would invite to dance once he would know of to – and after several minutes, they had caught back Nami and Luffy's level.

Brook was watching over the dancing pairings with delight, most inspired by the concept. And a full list of similar songs went on under the skeleton gentleman lead.

At a change of music, Luffy even went to pick up Zoro from his drinking contest to drag him on the dance-floor, while Sanji was going to ask the honour of a dance to his dear _Nami-swan_, Fuu cheering them up from the side-lines and prompting Sanji some steps and passes to help him focus on the dance.

BONG. A huge noise on her left suddenly made Fuu turn her head: Zoro had just knocked off Luffy with a punch on his captain's head.

"What the heck?" shouted he while baring his teeth, "Don't drag me into this damned thing! Two guys can't dance like that while holding hands!"

"Buuuuuttt…" was sulking Luffy with a sheepish expression.

_Hihihi… _inwardly laughed Fuu at imagining the scene of Luffy and Zoro doing some ballroom dancing, _If Yaoi fan-girls were hearing that, oh my, hihihi…_

"Tsk!" screeched Zoro while ignoring Luffy and walking away from the dance-floor.

But at turning back, he ended up right in front of Fuu – who had rushed towards them at thinking Zoro might need to be stopped but was now trying her best to stop laughing at the scene she had witnessed.

On his side, Luffy had gotten Nami's hand back, sending Sanji run after some aquamarine-haired nymph.

Fuu finally stopped laughing and looked at Zoro with a joyful smile.

"Do you want me to teach you the steps, Zoro?" offered she to the swordsman, mentally estimating that someone so good with kendo katas should have no trouble memorizing a couple of dance steps.

"No need!" cut Zoro very dryly, with a look that seemed to say _'As if I was going to dance, and something like that on top of that!'_

And he walked past Fuu to get back to the bench where his alcohol was waiting for him. Fuu sulked a bit at his lack of enthusiasm for dancing – _how can someone not like dancing?_ – but finally grinned at having found out the perfect counter for it.

"Oh, could you be lacking confidence?" provoked she, instantly stopping Zoro in his steps, "Well, Sanji only needed a couple of minutes to master the steps, so…"

That was the final blow in the swordsman ego, and he jumped back to answer her with a very loud voice.

"Screw him! This kind of damned dance, I can master it is a few seconds!" announced he with a huge vein bumping on his temple.

And he grabbed Fuu's hand in his and pulled her on to him with no more invitation.

_Eh…?_

SHIN. But nothing more happened…

"Hum…" began Zoro in a blush, most definitely regretting his previous declaration, "I… I just need to hold your hand and make you twirl, right?"

Fuu raised her eyes towards Zoro's face and made a huge effort not to laugh at seeing him so embarrassed and yet so reluctant to recognize it.

"Hum, yes… something like that…" replied she in a soft amused smile, her answer making her partner blush a bit more.

But once the first embarrassment passed, Zoro quickly became enthusiast.

Very enthusiast…

Too enthusiast…

The twirls he was making Fuu make were quickly augmenting in number and in speed, and despite all her dancing experience, the hazelnut-haired girl had had more and more trouble keeping up with him.

_Waaahhh… My head is spinning… I can't even detect which side Zoro is anymore… Why is he stringing up quintuple spins, waaahhh…_

Zoro had caught up Fuu's hand and had pulled her forward into an acrobatic chassé to make her twirl in front of him before letting go of her hand, forecasting that his partner would re-establish her steps in a sashay as she had done previously at each pass.

But this time, Fuu lost her balance, and she felt the ground irremediably attracting her while she was falling backwards.

_Kyaaa… _thought Fuu while dreading the fall, _Huh? Why is there no shock?_

And Fuu re-opened her eyes slowly, only to see that Zoro had caught her back just before she hit the ground, in a penché resembling more a tango step than a rock n' roll one, the swordsman's hand running down the hazelnut-haired girl's back in an acrobatic pose that had brought together the two dancers' faces way more closer than each of them would had liked – even if some spectators had even applauded at thinking it was the finishing pose of the dance.

SHIN. A small silence – or rather pure music notes – passed by on the two dancing partners who had frozen in this embarrassing position.

"… watch out…" mumbled Zoro, when finally breaking the silence and lifting Fuu back on her feet.

And before Fuu could answer, he had walked away without a single glance back, his cheeks a bit too hot to the swordsman liking.

Quite perplexed, Fuu glanced at Zoro's back as he was resuming his place on a bench between several jars of hydromel, not really understanding how one miss in the dance could make him renounce for good.

But before she could recover from her surprise, a hand was held out to her.

"Would you do me the honour of this dance, Young Fuu?" chivalrously asked the black-sapphire coated centaur who was inviting her.

"Ah, hum… Or course, the honour is all mine…" automatically answered Fuu while absent-mindedly giving her hand to the centaur, ballroom etiquette answering for her.

_I think it's the centaur-leader we met when Aslan when telling us about the Ice Dragon… _thought she distractingly while raising her eyes towards her dancing partner.

Ever since Zoro had left the dance-floor, the music had changed into a slower tempo, Sanji having bugged Brook so that he could give _a worthy musical jewel case to the exquisite voice_ of the aquamarine-haired nymph he had courted.

And the romantic and eerie ballad sung by the melodious voice of nymph rose around the fire.

The centaur thus held Fuu a bit closer and began the steps of a slow waltz.

_Wow, centaurs know how to waltz? _was surprised Fuu, _And really well on top of that, especially when considering two feet are already hard to synchronize… so with four of them…_

"I do need to congratulate you for your victory against the White Witch, Young Fuu." softly declared the black centaur in a smile.

"Oh, please, I did not do much myself…" mumbled Fuu, deeply embarrassed by the undeserved compliment and turning her head towards Luffy and the others – Luffy who still had Nami in his arms and was trying to replicate the waltzing steps of a couple of fawns nearby them.

"I do know your comrades deserve our gratitude. But I think you deserve more of our attentions: after all, you defeated the Sorceress despite your true nature…" exposed the centaur in a slow pas de deux that made Fuu's long pleated dress glitter under the flames of the huge fire.

SHIN. Fuu had frozen at the last part of the sentence, and the only things that were making her keep on dancing were her automatisms as a ballroom dancer.

_My true nature? What is he… _inwardly panicked she at the remark, blood slowly leaving her face.

"I do not wish to put you in any kind of embarrassment, but I concede being really curious to learn from where you are coming from, Young Fuu…" confessed the sapphire-coated dancer, "It is already quite evident you are not emitting the same energy as your comrades… not the same smell…"

Fuu froze a bit more and lowered her eyes, pretending to focus on her waltzing steps while her brain had switched into alert state.

_What can I answer? What should I answer, for God's sake…? Not the same… smell? Oh my… does he knows!Did he guess…?_

When Fuu finally raised her eyes towards her partner again, her expression was a very troubled one, even if she had wanted to put on a neutral façade.

"It would not bother me if you decided not to tell me about it, of course…" smiled awkwardly the centaur at realising he had completely embarrassed his hazelnut-haired dancing partner.

"Hum… Excuse me…" began Fuu, bringing the centaur's eyes back on her, "Did you… did you mention this difference of… smell… to my nakamas?"

The simple mention of this possibility made Fuu grow paler and paler.

"I did, indeed…" calmly answered the centaur while gazing at Fuu's amber eyes which had startled of panic at his reply, "Though I did not explained to your comrades what was making you different from them because your leader said he did not care about it!"

SHIN. Music notes flew by a few seconds, and Fuu's expression softened gradually.

_Sigh… _thought she while turning her grateful eyes towards the one who was happily waltzing with Nami at a few metres on her right, _That's Luffy for you, I guess…_

The black-sapphire coated centaur gazed a few seconds at Fuu who was still brightly smiling in Luffy and Nami's direction, and finally resumed the conversation with a bright new resolve.

"If you are so anxious at the fact that your comrades might learn that such a difference of nature separates you from them, would you rather consider staying on Fimbul, Young Fuu?" proposed he with an eerie glow in his eyes.

TILT. Fuu suddenly brought back her eyes on her partner, looking at him with utter amazement.

"The people here highly estimate you for the prowess you accomplished at the Ice Palace." précised the centaur without leaving Fuu's eyes out of his sight, "And the creatures from this Kingdom all dispose of a magical energy similar to yours. We would welcome you with delight; I myself would be overjoyed to see you choose to stay with us!"

"Hum… th… that's…" mumbled Fuu, both stupefied and strangely ill-at-ease by the declaration, and more especially by the sapphire eyes that were gazing at her with what seemed like hope.

_He… he seems to anticipate a positive answer, but why? And before that… how can I answer 'No' while staying courteous, hum…_

But while Fuu was losing herself into her thoughts, the black-coated centaur slowly bent over and brought his lips near Fuu's ear, softly brushing her cheeks at passing.

Fuu froze completely… Even her feet forgot about their conditioned waltzing steps.

"I would whole-heartedly enjoy seeing you stay in Fimbul, Beautiful Fuu." confessed the centaur in a murmur, "The colour of your magical aura simply bewitched me beyond words, and I cannot look away anymore… and your… fragrance… is so… intoxicating…"

_W… wh… what… _completely panicked Fuu at feeling the centaur inhale her skin, making her let go of his shoulder precipitately.

BAM. Fuu suddenly felt a hand grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away from the centaur's embrace in the span of an instant.

"My apologies, but I had already reserved the next dances…" declared in a dark tone the voice of the one who had pulled Fuu out of trouble.

"Ace!" exclaimed she in a relieved murmur.

_Thanks God…_

The black-sapphire coated centaur looked Ace up and down for a few seconds, before finally turning his eyes towards his previous dancing partner.

Regrets appeared at realising the hazelnut-haired girl's face was still turned towards her saviour, a bright smile making her eyes gleam as she was gazing not at him, but at the Son of Adam who had claimed her.

And he reluctantly conceded his defeat, aware that his dancing partner had already made her choice.

"I hope to see you again… Beautiful Fuu." announced the centaur while chivalrously taking his leave.

"Ah, hum… Please spend a pleasant evening…" bowed Fuu at suddenly realising how impolite she had been, "I had been honoured to dance with you."

"So did I…" answered the centaur in a sad smile before walking away.

The slow music notes from Brook's orchestra flew by on the fire-lit plaza.

"So your sort of guy, it's the four-legged and very hairy type?" screeched Ace while glaring at the centaur definitely leaving the dance-floor.

_Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh?_

"Wh… what are you talking about?" retorted Fuu with a surprised and disbelieving expression.

"Do you seriously think you can just flirt with any male creature just because I'm not around?" provoked Ace with his usual teasing smile, while gently taking Fuu's right hand in his and placing his second hand on the girl's back curve, resuming the steps of a new waltz.

"Wh…?" blushed furiously Fuu, "You were happily drinking with Marco and the others, and you…"

_Wait…! Why am I retorting something like that? Why am I even answering his stupid innuendo…? And… and more importantly, why did I just feel guilty that the centaur tried to flirt with me in front of Ace…? Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!_

Fuu's eyes were starting to spin with panic while she was trying to put some order between the contradictory feelings that were appearing in her heart and the related justifications popping up in her mind.

And the spins of the waltz were not helping her to get rid of her confusion, of course.

"And… and first of all, why couldn't I just dance with whoever I choose?" ended up retorting Fuu while raising her sulking yet indomitable eyes towards her partner.

"Hum…?" mocked Ace while crooking the smile he was always showing her when he was provoking her, "So you would have preferred me to let you with your previous partner?"

Fuu's cheeks immediately took an impossible to hide bright red colour, and she lowered her eyes on Ace's torso to try and dissimulate the blush under the shadow of her hair, forcing herself to focus more on the buttons of Ace's white shirt and Lavallière tie – from his suit from the Ice Palace – than on his _annoying_ teasing smile.

"N…no…" finally admitted she in a voice softer than a whisper, "I… I'm glad you… you came to pull me out of it…"

Feeling her cheeks burn with shame at confessing such a thing, Fuu finally dared to raise her eyes towards her dancing partner, half expecting him to mock her declaration.

But when her pitiful eyes met Ace's obsidian ones, Fuu blushed of two more tones – if it could have been possible – when she realised Ace was gazing at her with a tender and radiant expression, as if gleaming of pure happiness at what she had just confessed.

_Waaaaaaahhh… I'm sure I must be as red as his pearl necklace! Don't look at a girl with such an expression, you damned playboy… _thought Fuu while biting her inferior lip, deeply embarrassed.

Around them were twirling couples of centaurs, fawns and other fantastic creatures, still under the magical song of the aquamarine-haired nymph.

But Fuu wasn't even realising that her friends were also spinning around them: Luffy and Nami, Marco and Anne, some other couples of pirates…

She wasn't really hearing the melodious notes from Brook's orchestra, not the cheering from some distant drinking contest…

Not even daring to raise her eyes back on her partner's, but all her sensations focusing on the mere gesture or breathe of their closed position, Fuu was pursuing their waltz, softly squeezing her hand on his shoulder.

And with a tender smile, Ace pulled her a little closer to him and led her amidst the flow of the music in a series of slow twirls and soft spins, not leaving the hazelnut curls and the blushing face of his partner out of his sight…

**

* * *

ON THE SIDELINES**

A bit farther, on the spectators' ranks, Robin walked towards a tree-trunk bench.

"Can I…?" asked she at showing the empty sitting place near Zoro.

"Hum…" nodded Zoro absent-mindedly while finishing his tankard of hydromel, before filling it again with one of the numerous jars nearby him.

Intrigued, Robin followed the direction in which the swordsman was gazing at and saw Fuu and Ace twirling entwined on the dance-floor.

"Oh… I see…" commented she in a neutral tone before sitting down on the bench, a teasing smile on her lips.

"What?" retorted Zoro at seeing the crooked smile Robin had offered him.

"I've been wondering for some time now, Ken-san…" began Robin with her usual mysterious yet placid expression, "Could you have… fallen in love with Fuu?"

SHRRR. Zoro spurted out the mouthful of hydromel he was gulping down, his eyes out of their sockets under the shock.

"Wh… what did you just say?" gasped he while turning briskly towards the dark-haired archaeologist, half-wiping his chin with his sleeve.

"I just realised that you were caring a lot for her, and that you were quite often gazing at her…" calmly pursued Robin, "And I can understand that Cook-san would react jealously at each little allusion on her and Ace-san, but it's definitely not like you to react too, so…"

"I stop you right now!" cut Zoro, massaging his head with an annoyed expression, "That's not it!"

Zoro's eyes wandered back on the dance-floor around the huge fire, and more especially on the silhouette of an hazelnut-haired girl wearing a white pleated dress.

"I thought about it," added he with a weary sigh, "But…"

_So he realised it… _thought Robin at contemplating her nakama's slightly blushing face, the swordsman being evidently embarrassed by what he was presently confessing, plus a hint of irritation.

"But there's a decisive element that convinced me that I don't love her that way!" finished Zoro.

SHIN. Robin's eyes widened at the last part of the sentence.

"You LOVE her?" repeated she, both her eyebrows raised to show her incredulity in front of such a declaration from their not-really-sociable-and-even-less-loving swordsman.

"Well, yeah…" grumbled Zoro with a faint blush, "I want her to be happy… I want to chop down anyone who would want to hurt her… want to protect her… and I like to gaze at her from afar… like to hear her call my name while smiling… Yeah, this kind of things, but…"

"But?" questioned Robin, more and more dumbfounded by such a confession even if her amazement wasn't showing on her face.

_Ken-san must have drunk way more than usual to admit all of that! And God knows he's a heavy drinker…_

"It resembles love in all points, what you're currently describing…" muttered she in a perplexed tone.

"But…" pursued Zoro with a very straight face, "I've got zero desire to put her in my bed!"

SHIN. On the contrary to her habit, Robin had just been taken aback by someone's declaration. More precisely, Zoro's words were chiming in her head but without echoing anywhere, stupefaction having emptied her mind of everything else.

Zoro had gone back to his tankard, but a bit surprised by the lack of reaction of his interlocutor, he finally turned his head back towards Robin, a bit embarrassed. And Robin's eyes focused back on him.

"Wait, then… then why are you always provoking Ace-san for Fuu?" asked Robin while slightly shaking her head to try and put out all the new pieces of information back in place, "If what you just said is true, then you could just let him…"

"Tsk! No way I'm letting him take her away so easily! He'd better prove he deserves her and can make her happy or I won't let him get away with it! And well, I must say it's funny to see this idiot usually so serious and all-mighty lose his cool for a girl…" softly laughed Zoro while remembering all the provocative glares and crisis of jealousy Ace was giving him as long as it was concerning Fuu.

"Hum… That sounds like a serious brother-complex, that!" remarked Robin with a monochord tone.

SHRRR. Zoro had just spurted out a mouthful of hydromel for the second time.

"Grr… And why are you asking me all of that, by the way?" roared he before going back to his drink, really on the nerves, "Are you jealous or something?"

"Hum, I might be…" answered Robin with her usual enigmatic smile.

SHRRR. Zoro just spurted out his third mouthful of hydromel.

"Wh…" began he while turning his eyes towards his interlocutor, but only to realise she had already stood up and walked away.

_She doesn't know what she wants, this damned woman! _thought Zoro, dumbstruck, at contemplating the drifting-away silhouette of Robin in her white dress.

On the other side of the plaza, the flames of the huge fire were slowly dying away, leaving the dancers and spectators sleepy of tiredness or alcohol.

And everyone finally fell asleep, expressions of happiness floating on their faces, their dreams wearing off the soft colour of Spring…

**...**

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	24. Transition, SongFic Ace

**Original Happening Date: **April 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes:** Romance / **Pairings: **AceXOC  
**Number of Chapters: **SP **/ Words: **1630  
**Rating: **T (reason)  
**Credits:** Lyrics of the song: "Crush" by David Archuleta from Jess Cates, Dave Hodges & Emanuel Kiriakou under the label Jive Records **/ **Original Song on Youtube: watch?v=b50CWIEvoIc

* * *

Song-Fic: Ace x Fuu ~Crush~

…

**NEW WORLD, FIMBUL**

Ace was sitting back to the trunk of huge cherry tree, perched on one of the big branches of the tree full of flowers. It had been several days and several nights that everyone was celebrating their victory over the White Witch with loads of hydromel and noisy Kampai, hours of dancing and card-playing, and above all a laid-back partying spirit with its more or less painful consequences…

Ace slowly brushed his cheek with his fingertips.

_Fuu really didn't miss me, yesterday night…_

_Tsk, it's true I had drunk way too much, but how could I have teased her to the point of asking her to spend the night with me? Of course she would knock me out, even when taking the offer literally and without understanding its innuendo as she's used to!_

_Well, I have to admit that the few seconds of hesitation she had while blushing furiously at my proposition had made me hope a bit… Sigh, but knowing her, that wasn't even hesitation but pure incredulity and panic… I'm really hopeless! It should be time to make up my mind!_

And still cursing himself for his blender from the night before, Ace sighed deeply and placed his hands behind his head to take a nap against the cherry tree trunk.

But Morpheus didn't seem eager to let him forget so easily his love problems… and it was a drowsing Ace that couldn't manage to fall asleep who let his thoughts wander towards the one who was holding onto the key to his most beautiful hopes but also his most dreadful doubts.

And while the Spring breeze was ruffling the branches full of sakura flowers around him, he couldn't help but remember one of the songs that had been played at the party the night before.

* * *

**_I hung up the phone tonight,  
_****_Something happened for the first time deep inside,  
_****_It was a rush, what a rush._**

_When she slapped me, yesterday night, my heart raced… raced faster than ever before… and I suddenly wondered if I had just destroyed everything there was between us with some ten stupid words… if I had pushed my chance too far…_

**_'Cause the possibility,_**  
**_That you would ever feel the same way about me,_**  
**_It's just too much, just too much._**

_Because teasing her to see how much she can blush, pulling her leg until she knocks me out for not having another way to escape me, it's true I've found that really interesting at the beginning…_

**_Why do I keep running from the truth?_**  
**_All I ever think about is you,_**  
**_You got me hypnotized, so mesmerized,_**  
**_And I've just got to know._**

_At the beginning? Humph, who am I bluffing? Already right from the beginning, I had had so much trouble putting my priorities in order when she was there… All it had taken was to lock my eyes into hers on this scaffold and all the guilt I was feeling for having caused this war had let place for an immoderate interest for these amber eyes that were openly and candidly looking at me…_

_**Do you ever think when you're all alone,**_  
_**All that we can be, where this thing can go?**_  
_**Am I crazy or falling in love?**_  
_**Is it real or just another crush?**_

_After the war, after she had saved every one of us, I had thought that my interest for her was just gratefulness… at least that was what I was telling Marco and the others… But when I was alone and my thoughts were wandering towards her, it wasn't just about me feeling grateful: I was anxious to know what she was feeling, her! I was wondering if she had rushed into this war for me… I was wondering what she was thinking about all the little innuendos everyone was giving us… wondering what she was thinking about all the crooked teasing smiles I was giving her and which were making her blush… But I was the one driving myself crazy over such a simple interrogation: 'What does she think about me?'_

**_Do you catch a breath when I look at you?_**  
**_Are you holding back like the way I do?_**  
**_'Cause I'm trying and trying to walk away,_**  
**_But I know this crush ain't goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy,_**  
**_Goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy._**

_I surprised myself by gazing at her blushing expression, by counting the seconds she was holding back her breath when I was moving my face closer to her to tease her a bit more… I couldn't help but wonder if all of that was due to embarrassment or if she was inwardly trying to hold back the emotions I'm stirring inside her… Emotions…? in her…? How arrogant, hum… But I get what I deserve, I guess… since I'm the one not able to hold back the emotions SHE is stirring inside ME anymore, now… I can't push them away… can't go away…_

**_Has it ever crossed your mind,_**  
**_When we're hanging, spending time girl, are we just friends?_**  
**_Is there more, is there more?_**

_Ever since we've landed here, I can't help but wonder about what she's thinking, about what she's feeling when we walk side by side to visit a new island, to enter an unknown village… Nakamas…? Am I for her just like Luffy and the others…? Or do I have at least a special little place in her heart?_

**_See it's a chance we've gotta take,_**  
**_'Cause I believe that we can make this into something that will last,_**  
**_Last forever, forever._**

_Sometimes, when I look into her eyes, I feel like I'm seeing an encouraging light… After all, she doesn't run away from me or avoid me… she even comes to find me on her own, quite often… That should mean there's hope, hum? I'd like to believe that means there's hope, that she won't mind us spending our lives together, side by side… but… can I just bet our current relationship and take this chance?_

**_Do you ever think when you're all alone,_**  
**_All that we can be, where this thing can go?_**  
**_Am I crazy or falling in love?_**  
**_Is it real or just another crush?_**

_How can I be sure, hum? Sure about what she's thinking when I look straight into her eyes…? Sure about what she thought about me when Anne and the others told her I was lining up one-night-stands before knowing her…? Did it touch her… hurt her… did it broke some of her hopes…? Humph… speak of MY hopes, rather… I only feel that such news only made her build more barriers between us, as if to be sure never to fall into the sweet trap of a heart-breaker, tsk… I feel like I'm the one trapped, trying to guess what there is in her heart…_

**_Do you catch a breath when I look at you?_**  
**_Are you holding back like the way I do?_**  
**_'Cause I'm trying and trying to walk away,_**  
**_But I know this crush ain't goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy,_**  
**_Goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy._**

_The first evening of partying, when we danced this waltz, I thought she was truly happy for my being with her… I saw it in her eyes and I felt pure bliss for a brief moment… But then she had just blushed and lowered her eyes… why? She couldn't have guessed, right…? No, knowing her, she would never had guessed… never guessed how much I had hold back not to burn to ashes her previous dancing partner… never guessed how much self-control I had needed not to crush my lips on hers when she had thanked me with this irresistible smile of hers, so alluring yet so shy…_

**_Why do I keep running from the truth?_**  
**_All I ever think about is you,_**  
**_You got me hypnotized, so mesmerized,_**  
**_And I've just got to know._**

_Tsk, that's definite: I'm only bluffing myself… How did I end up here, to the point where she's occupying all of my thoughts, while girls had never really interested me? How come she's not like the others, whose names I've forgotten… not a fleeting affair anymore? Humph, now that I think about it, when is it that I could have considered her like a potential conquest…? I never thought of her as such, not once… I didn't even asked myself the question: at the very moment we had locked eyes on this scaffold at Marine Ford, I feel like I had already decided deep inside that she will be special to me…_

**_Do you ever think when you're all alone,_**  
**_All that we can be, where this thing can go?_**  
**_Am I crazy or falling in love?_**  
**_Is it real or just another crush?_**

_But am I special to her…? Is she thinking about me, right now…? Is she also wondering if we could become more than what we already are for each other? Does she also feel like she's becoming stupid and incoherent when her eyes meet mine…? Has she ever considered what that could mean for her if I was sincerely telling her that I'm serious about her…?_

**_Do you catch a breath when I look at you?_**  
**_Are you holding back like the way I do?_**  
**_'Cause I'm trying and trying to walk away,_**  
**_But I know this crush ain't goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy,_**  
**_This crush ain't goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy,_**  
**_Goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy,_**  
**_Goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy,_**  
**_Goin' away-ay-ay-ay-ayy._**

* * *

Ace smiled softly as the last lyrics of the song were fading in his memory…

He was really obliged to admit that it wasn't just a 'crush' at his level: _Should I try and take this chance…?_

"Ace…!" called at this moment the voice he was always recognizing among a thousand.

"Speaking of the angel…" muttered Ace for himself in a smile, when a hazelnut-haired girl in a long pleated dress entered his field of vision, slowly striding along the forest, and apparently looking for him…


	25. Transition, Cherry Tree

**Original Happening Date: **April 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes: **Adventure, Romance, Parody  
**Pairings: **AceXOC  
**Number of Chapters: **1 **/ Words: **3600  
**Rating: **T  
**Credits:** All characters beside the two OC (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders across the world.  
**Guest Star:** Clow, alias Clowsama (.net/u/1552380/Clowsama)

* * *

Step Up – A New Breeze

…

**NEW WORLD, FIMBUL**

"Fuu!" shouted Luffy, grinning widely as he was running towards the girl he had called.

"Luffy…" turned back Fuu, smiling back at her grinning captain, "What is it?"

"Do you know where Ace is?" asked him with a very cheerful tone.

"No, I didn't see him since yesterday night…" answered Fuu.

"Hum…" paused Luffy in a sulking expression, but his usual grin soon came back at full speed, "Well, doesn't matter… here, take it!"

And Luffy pinned a black cowboy hat adorned with two antagonist blue smileys onto Fuu, who barely managed to bring back her hands on it before it fell down.

"Ace's hat…?" wondered she, a bit surprised at examining the object she had instinctively caught back.

"Yeah!" grinned Luffy, "We went back to the Ice Palace this morning: Nami wanted to find the Queen's treasures… So we took back our stuff at the same time!"

_Hum, so that's the reason why he's back to wearing his patched-up blue short pants and his red vest…? Well, not that the white outfit the Queen had invited us to wear had had a great impact on his usual looks, especially considering the way he was wearing it, but… _thought Fuu while gazing at Luffy's outfit.

She was also still wearing the long Greccian-styled white dress she had put on at the Ice Palace for the dinner with Queen Jadis and then replicated with her power when the White Which magic had disappeared – taking their clothes away in the process, unfortunately…

Lost in thoughts, Fuu's eyes wandered on Ace's hat.

_Now that I think about it, it's true that Ace had his hat on at the dinner… And even if he had hung it on his back, it was still denoting a lot with the white tuxedo he was wearing: the contrast was even more shocking than for Luffy's straw hat, hihihi… After that, hum, I remember he still had it when he had landed in the Royal Courtroom with the Ice Dragon, but the hat flew away during his fight against the Queen, and we didn't think much about it afterwards…_

_I guess he'll be happy to find it back: he and Luffy are really some hat-oriented fashion maniac, hihihi… even if it will denote again with the white suit he's still wearing…_

"So you're going to wake up Ace and I'm going to wake up the others!" instructed Luffy while pointing at the hat, "Nami said the Log Pose has registered the direction of the next island so we're leaving soon for the next adventure, shishishi!"

And the over-excited adventure lover dashed towards the village plaza to go and do his part of the job, abandoning Fuu where she was with a mere wave of his hand.

_Oh my… That's Luffy for you I guess… But he's going to be chewed hard-core if he's waking up everyone so early in the morning, especially if he uses his usual… Luffy-like way of waking up people… It's only dawn, and that's been nearly five days that everyone is partying, so I guess all our nakamas are still groggy from the lack of sleep…_

_Hum… and now that I think about it, how come he puts me in charge of going to WAKE UP his NARCOLEPTIC big brother, huh? Sigh… what a family…_

And with one last weary sigh, Fuu put the cordon of the black hat around her head to let it rest on her back while she walked away in quest of WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

The sun was barely up in the sky, and the huge pile of burnt wood at the centre of the plaza was still smoking from the immense fire around which everyone had celebrated their victory against the White Witch for nearly one week.

Fuu swiftly crossed the plaza still sprinkled by the sleeping silhouettes of the party members – pirates, centaurs, nymphs and other magical creatures – while careful avoiding to wake them up.

_I'm the type to wake up early even if my night was short, but it's true it's only been some hours since the party finally finished… I even wonder when Luffy and Nami could have found enough time to make a round-trip to the Palace… they pulled out an all-nighter I'm sure – well, a nearly five-night all-nighter for Luffy… but then again, it's true Nami can be overly motivated as long as treasures and money are involved…_

And while Fuu was inwardly laughing at the scene that Nami should have made this very same morning to shake awake an overly sleepy Luffy – the mikan-haired navigator with Berry-shaped eyes probably dragging behind her their still-sleepy elastic captain – she took the lane towards the nearby forest.

"Ace…?" called she, her hands cupped around her mouth while scanning the surrounding woods, vaguely remembering that it was the direction he had taken the night before when everyone had left the plaza to go to bed.

_I slept at the beaver's inn with Robin, but it had already been decided that the guys will spend the night outside since there wasn't enough rooms – well, Nami never came back but… spending the night out is her decisi…_

Fuu's cheeks suddenly became a little redder.

_Now that I think about it, Ace had drunk way too much, yesterday, grr! How dared he ask me to spend the night with him? No but seriously, how can he ask something like that?_

_Oh, well… I guess my slap shook him enough to get his head back together, since he left to go and sleep alone, tsk…_

Fuu's steps stopped momentarily at the same time as her mind was tripping over her last thought.

_Alone…? … really…? Could he have… invited… another girl?_

The Spring breeze ruffled Fuu's hair-curls a few seconds…

And she suddenly started walking again, as if in a rush to get her thoughts out of her head, as if she could have abandoned them where she had been standing previously and now walk away from them, farther and farther from them with each new step.

_No, of course not… It's not possible! It's… not… possible, huh…?_

_Grr, why is it bugging me? There's no reason for me to feel preoccupied by such a thing: Anne and the other girls from Marco's team have already told me that he's used to 'associating' with tavern girls, so even if he spent the night with a beautiful nymph, it's none of my concern… none… none of my… Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! Okay, that's enough, I stop thinking about it, I stop…_

Hopefully for Fuu, her train of thought was stopped by the scenery in front of her.

Her steps had brought her to other side of the woods, near the coast line, at the place where countless plum trees and cherry trees were full in bloom. And Fuu raised her hands to gently grasp one of the sakura petals that were twirling in the warm breeze.

The Hundred-Years-Winter curse had been lifted when Jadis had been defeated and time had flown again to catch back to the lost seasons, making the fields rejuvenate and the whole valley bloom.

Everything had now the soft fragrance of Spring and nature had resumed its peaceful harmony…

_Wow… Cherry trees in full blossom: it's really breath-taking… On this one, I'm really happy to have ended up stuck into a JAPANESE manga, hihihi…_

_Hum… And the morning sunlight is so warm, like a soft veil… Hum, such a bliss… Heavens must feel like this!_

Grinning like at an idiot at the surrounding scenery, Fuu slowly closed her eyes to focus her sensations on the faint murmur of the wind and on the fleeting aroma of the sakura buds…

She slowly raised her arms above her to stretch the muscles on her body which were still feeling numb after her short night of sleep, seeking the peaceful contact of the breeze on her skin… but something else came in contact:

"KYAAAA!" screamed Fuu of surprise when she suddenly felt something pulling her by her arms and lifting her from the ground.

"Morning'…" murmured the teasing voice of the one who had attracted her into the cherry tree.

BONG. Fuu's fist had rung on Ace's head, making a frightened couple of blue tits nesting nearby fly away at full speed.

"What do you think you're doing?" ranted Fuu while trying to make her heartbeat quiet down after the surprising take off she had experienced, "What's the idea with catapulting people somewhere without their authorization? You're decidedly not brothers for nothing, Luffy and you!"

WhiteBeard's Second Commander was indeed sitting on a high branch of the huge cherry tree, his back resting against the trunk, and he had effortlessly pulled up the hazelnut-haired girl to make her sit on his lap in the heart of the pink-blooming tree.

"Oh, but I'm definitely sure this Baka-Otouto is not doing it with the same intention as me…" retorted Ace with his usual crooked smile, while massaging his neck.

"Intention?" paused Fuu, stopping her second raging fist to take a fully perplexed pose, tilting her head to the side.

"Hum hum…" nodded Ace while running his arm behind her back to pull her on to him.

_Wh… Ace? _blushed furiously Fuu while trying to push him back.

But her hands bumped into his chest without any effective result, except the one of making her blush a bit more and avert her eyes from his nude torso, which was now showing between the unbuttoned parts of his white shirt and the undone ends on his silk tie – last remnants from his Ice Palace outfit.

"… like wanting to thank you for having jumped off to come and pick me up when I fell from the griffin…" explained Ace in a teasing tone while softly grabbing Fuu's chin between the thumb and fingers of his free hand to force her to look at him, "You really like me, hum?"

DOKI. To this sentence that sounded more like an evidence than like a question, Fuu became scarlet and tried to struggle to leave Ace's arms… but in vain.

_WAAAHHH! Why is he bringing that up now? I don't even know myself why I dived in darkness at that very moment… Idiot! IDIOT! Don't ask me such an embarrassing question! It's true that when I thought about it afterwards, I could have just made you float from the distance with my power, but… but… but I was so panicked that… that I… __Grr!_

"No… not at all…! I… I would have done the same for anybody…" protested Fuu in an embarrassed mumble, not even daring to raise her eyes towards the one who didn't seem eager to let go of her despite all her efforts to push him back.

"Hum… Really?" provoked Ace, his usual _irritating_ teasing smile floating on his lips, "And what about the kiss on the Moby Dick during the battle against the Marine Admirals?"

_WAAAAAAAAAHHH! Make him stop right here! Make him stop to ask such embarrassing questions! Why is he bringing back all the times during which I had cracked up because of anger or pain and acted without giving it a single thought? Is he trying to make me feel even worse than I already am?_

_And first of all, that kiss doesn't count! It wasn't a kiss… just a diversion… I had definitely DEFINITELY not given it a single thought, not a single one… That wasn't a real kiss! That doesn't count!_

"That… it… it was a mere diversion strategy! It doesn't count!" countered Fuu, beat red with shame and starting to hammer Ace's chest with her fists once more to try and force her way out of his arms.

"Ooh?" jested Ace while raising an amused eyebrow at hearing her attempt to justify herself, "Then here is one that counts…"

_Ace? Wh…_

SHIN. Ace had brought his lips against Fuu's, tenderly holding her closer onto him to cut short to any attempt to counterattack.

Confounded, Fuu could now feel his lips softly caressing hers and his warm skin pressed onto hers.

Ace's fingers had interwoven into her hazelnut hair-curls, fatally attracting her closer and closer against him.

Gradually, Fuu's fist softened against Ace's chest…

And irremediably, she felt her eyes beginning to close down, slowly, meekly, when suddenly:

"A…CE…! FU…U…!" shouted – yelled – a voice under them, like a thunder-shock breaking the spell.

CRASH. Ace's face had collapsed on Fuu's shoulder at the shock, and Fuu had frozen.

Fire flushed into her cheeks at full speed, but she was still too stunned to speak or even think about what had just happened.

And on his side, Ace finally drew his face farther from Fuu and shot a glance at the ill-timed visitor.

"Luffy…" grumbled he with a world-weary tone, inwardly cursing the timing of his little brother.

"Ah, found you!" exclaimed Luffy while pointing at the two silhouettes he had just discovered on the high branch of the cherry tree, "What are you doing up there, the both of you?"

_Wh… what are we… doing… up there… the both… BOTH…? !_

Fuu had finally recovered from the shock.

She briskly turned her head towards Luffy, then towards Ace who was still holding her on to him, panicked completely and even blushed a few more tones on the scale from white to scarlet, and finally struggled really hard to get off of Ace's arms.

BADABAM. Fuu's impatient and desperate revolt caused a general loss of balance, and she and Ace smashed brutally on the grassy ground under the cherry tree.

_Ouch… Huh? It doesn't hurt as much as I would have thought…_

Fuu re-opened her eyes and gazed at Ace who was now lying flat under her, for having – unsuccessfully – tried to break their fall.

Surprised and trouble, Fuu's cheeks flushed a bit more with shame and guilt and she swiftly stood up to release Ace's back from its 'weight'.

"Ace, you okay?" asked Luffy while poking the crashed body of his brother with his elastic finger to check if it was still alive, "You never fall down, usually, what are you doing?"s

"It's… your… FAULT! You Baka-Otouto!" grumbled Ace while swiftly getting back on his feet and grabbing Luffy's head in an arm-lock clutch.

"Buuuuuuut…. I didn't do a thing!" retorted Luffy while pulling his gum-like head out of his big brother's catch.

"And you don't even get it, you aho!" lectured Ace while trying to kick him out of frustration.

"Don't call me aho!" snapped Luffy while countering the kick and sending an elastic punch towards his brother.

And Fuu could only helplessly watch the two brothers fight like moody children, without caring about anything else, attacking and countering without any break, and definitely decided to chase after the other in order not to let him have the final hit.

"Hum, you guys…" tried she to chime in, a huge drop of world-weariness appearing on her temple at the sight, but the two fighting brothers had already disappeared between the trees while pursuing their fight, some half-broken trees on their stake reporting that they were still at each other's fists.

_Sigh… _breathed out Fuu while finally resigning herself and lowering the hand she had raised to try and tell them to stop.

POF. Surprised by the sudden yet familiar noise, Fuu turned her head and nearly got a heart attack at suddenly seeing her brother's face floating at a mere centimetres from her.

_Grr… I told him not to stop appearing without prior notice like that… _inwardly ranted she while slowly breathing in and out to make her heart-beat quiet down.

And as if he had heard Fuu's silent complain, Clow put his hands on each side of his big communication mirror and crossed its surface to land both feet on the grass near his sister.

Having finally calmed down, Fuu looked at her visitor with a puzzled expression, her face picturing fully how perplexed she was to see him here.

"So…" calmly began Clow, his hand resting on his chin as if he was mentally measuring up the person in front of him, "It seems my sister has finally fallen on the side of the perverted fan-girls…"

CRASH. Fuu had collapsed noisily, completely knocked out by the declaration.

"OF COURSE NOT!" exclaimed she while baring her teeth when she swiftly stood up again to face the accusatory, who was, him, sighing wearily while contemplating her in a lecturing pose.

"Oh, really?" smirked her while crossing his arms on his chest in an arrogant pose, "What about the kiss?"

Fuu's cheeks instantly retrieved their bright red colours.

"Tsk… You're really not worth more than all the perverted fan-girls sending themselves into One Piece just to satisfy their desires with their favourite manga characters!" commented he in a contemptuous tone while shaking his head from left to right.

"You're wrong!" cried Fuu, her expression a mixture of shame and embarrassment, "You know I'm not that type of girl! It… it was just… an accident!"

_How can he just put me in the same basket as these girls he had told me about and who invent selfish fan-fictions where the heroes satisfy all their fantasies without them even having a choice, in the end?_

_It's not like that… I'm not like that… I don't… Ugh…!_

"An accident, hum…" repeated Clow with a very dubious tone, "Oh, you probably mean the kind of coincidence and accident so manga-like where two characters inopportunely fall on each other lips against lips?"

"Of course, it's a misunderstanding!" affirmed Fuu while clenching her fists with determination, even if her eyes were rather involuntarily supplicating her brother to believe her without asking for the details.

"So it means you don't feel anything towards Ace?" pointed out Clow while shooting an accusing glance to his sister from behind his rectangular glasses.

"N…nothing…" mumbled Fuu while feeling her heart tighten in her chest in answer to her declaration but flatly ignoring the signal it was retorting her.

"I see…" pursued Clow while calmly arching an eyebrow at the affirmation, "So, for instance, you never ever think about the warm timbre of his voice when he's calling your name?"

Taken aback by the question, Fuu instantly and involuntarily blushed of one shade on the scale separating her from scarlet, and Clow took her reaction as an eloquent answer, before mockingly pursuing his little inquisition.

"So you never ever think about the outlines of his muscles when your fingers run along his torso?" continued he with a faint teasing smile.

_I… _gulped down with difficulty Fuu while blushing at the second shade.

"So you never ever think about the softness and the flavour of his lips on yours?" kept on Clow with a pert expression, insolently rejoicing of being able to deduce the answers to his questions by only looking at his sister's face.

Fuu had indeed and instantly reached the third shade on the colour scale of her blush.

"And above all, you never ever think about the warmth of his naked body when he had pressed you against him at the hot springs?" finished off Clow with a clearly provocative grin.

BONG. Fuu's fist had just stormed on her younger brother's skull, and she had put all her strength in it!

And in a monumentally bright scarlet blush, she dashed away while mumbling some insults, abandoning her jerk of a brother on the ground behind her.

… _How… how can he say that like… like THAT? Idiot, aho, moronic insensible brother! And PERVERT on top of that!_

Clow slowly raised back his head and looked at Fuu running away with a laughing expression.

He then calmly sit on the grass and still glanced a few more seconds at the runaway back of his older sister while repressing another laugh at imagining without trouble that her cheeks must have still been beat red.

"Tsk…" murmured he in an amused tone, as if speaking to himself, "How can she be so mature on nearly all the conversation topics of this world EXCEPT her love relationships? It kind of makes my victories too easy, hahaha… Worst than any Shoujo heroine on this one… especially considering the fact that she actually doesn't do it on purpose, hahaha… No but really, what a problematic sister!"

And Clow chuckled a bit more at remembering the panicking and totally embarrassed expression of the one person he was used to see wearing a serious and perceptive expression even on troubling or sensible topics. Everybody would have been obliged to admit that as long as it was concerning herself on THIS very topic, she was more dense and easy to read through than anybody else around…

When he had finally managed to stop laughing, Clow let the Spring breeze bring his head up and he silently stared at the endless sky of Grand Line.

"Don't attach yourself to him, baka…! You perfectly know that we won't be able to stay forever in this world…" murmured Clow with a wretched sigh.

He then stood up and glanced at the faraway silhouette of Fuu who was meeting up with Nami, Luffy and the others to bid farewell to the inhabitants of Fimbul.

He made another of his transportation mirrors appear out of a twirl of his quill pen, and shot a last protective and worried glance to his sister before crossing the glass.


	26. Transition, ShortStory, Council of War

**Original Happening Date: **April 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes: **Comedy  
**Number of Chapters: **1 **/ Words: **3000  
**Rating: **K  
**Credits:** All characters beside the OC (Outsider Character) Fuu are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders across the world.

* * *

The Day the Mugiwaras held a Council of War

…

**GRAND LINE, THOUSAND SUNNY**

"So…?" asked Luffy while seeing Usopp coming back towards them.

"I give up!" exclaimed the sniper while collapsing on the barrel nearby with a resigned and sulking expression, "She was doing fine with the bow at the beginning, but it screw up when we started training on moving targets…"

"Screw up?" repeated Luffy, a pit perplexed.

"Yeah… Since she had a really good trajectory when shooting a fixed target, well, a really flawless trajectory, nearly as good as me, which is of course a huge accomplishment since the great Usopp-sama… hum hum…" started to pride himself the sniper before some dark glares shot by his nakamas brought him back on the main topic, "So… I was saying that after that, I decided it was time to try with moving targets, and I had prepared a lot of clay discs… But when I started to launch them in the air for her to shoot them, she suddenly deviated her line of firing at the last second and the arrow flew by… a little tiny centimetres from my nose! Do you realize?"

Usopp was showing to everyone the ridiculously small space between his thumb and finger to illustrate the pathetic distance that had separated his nose from the cruel destiny of turning into a skewer, losing himself in a long monologue about the dangerous accident he had escaped and all the blablabla about how fate was cruel and how it had been scary for him to face it.

"But why did she deviate her shoot?" finally managed to ask Robin, apparently not taken aback by the quantity of words Usopp had manage to throw at them.

The remark made Usopp calm down and he realised he had forgotten to tell his nakamas about the 'reason' in question.

And such remembrance made him hit his forehead with the flat of his hand, as if to illustrate his despair in front of the 'reason' he was going to expose.

"Well, just try and imagine that after such a dangerous attack against me, she just apologized a lot by saying…" began Usopp before making his voice sound more high-pitched and girlish to mimic the rest of the sentence as if it was an illustrated flashback: "There was a little bird which came flying near the target…!"

SHIN. A huge silence fell on the group of pirates, no one having trouble to imagine in their mind the scene of their archer explaining in a blushing expression that she didn't want to hurt some innocent seagull.

"Does she at least realise that if I was teaching her all of that, it was so that she can use it against enemies?" got indignant Usopp, shaking his head from left to right in full disbelief.

"Hum… yeah, so that's a failure…" summed up Luffy while crossing his arms on his chest.

"And a huge one!" confirmed Sanji while dragging on his cigarette, "The arrow went right into the kitchen's wall! Not that it caused a lot of damage, but still…"

"And you, Sanji-kun? Some progress?" asked Nami while turning her head towards their blond cook.

"Unfortunately, Nami-san, none…" sighed Sanji while shaking his head, "I had thought the training was going pretty well, especially considering how flexible is her bod…y…"

A little pause interrupted the speech of the chef, and his eyes started to drift away into some perverted admiring expression at the remembrance of the abilities demonstrated by the flexible and athletic girl to whom he had tried to teach some fighting techniques based on low and high kicks.

But the little bubble full of heart-shaped salivating fantasies soon exploded under the murdering pressure of two of the pirates assembled and Sanji regained his cool and pursued his explanation.

"Hum hum… So I was saying she seemed to have some nice predispositions, I dare say she even seemed to have some experience in this kind of fighting, but the problem is that she mainly focused on countering my kicks while never attacking…" kept on the cook while remembering the ballet of kicks that had opposed him to the white-dress-wearing girl, "That is… the first five minutes before I…"

"Before you collapsed into a way too abundant nosebleed, yohohoho!" completed Brook who had indeed arrived to check on the training at the moment when Sanji had passed out, his eyes in twirling heart-shape and his 'student' panicking while holding him onto her without knowing what to do to make the nosebleed stop, "Not that I can blame you, Sanji-san! The beautiful image of a lady's panties playing hide-and-seek under the petticoats of a light dress is so…"

"Th… that wasn't…!" tried to justify himself Sanji, strangely ill-at-ease – or ashamed – by the comment – or rather by the flames of anger provoked by the innuendo that he could see in the eyes of some of his nakamas.

SIGH. The major part of the Mugiwaras just heaved a deep sigh in answer to the lack of dignity of their love-cook and abandoned the anecdote of his coaching to turn their attention towards their gentleman skeleton.

"And you, Brook, you could teach her something?" asked Luffy.

"I'm afraid not, Luffy-san…" announced the musician in a regretful tone, "She confessed having already used a foil before, so I had high hopes, especially considering that her garde and her movements were excellent, but…"

"But?" asked in unison all the others.

"But I was forced to tell her it was her turn to launch a thrust towards me because she wasn't attacking…" completed Brook with a sigh of resignation, "Thus she answered 'Please do the honours" and our duel of courteousness to know who would have the hallmark of attacking first lasted the major part of the training…"

CRASH. Part of the pirates present had by now collapsed on the floor, completely knocked out by the impossible probability of seeing two opponents really picky on politeness offering the other the privilege of attacking first.

"No but what's her problem? She takes it as a hobby or something?" grumbled Zoro without knowing he had guessed right about the sports practiced by the girl in question during her leisure time.

"Must I remind you that you haven't made more progress than me on the discipline, Zoro-san?" commented Brook at turning his head towards his swordsman companion.

"Tsk!" sneered Zoro while crossing his arms in front of him, definitely vexed and ill-at-ease by the remark, "I'd like to see how you'd get on, after she said such a thing!"

"Why did she tell him?" calmly asked Robin to their afro-musician when seeing that Zoro wasn't going to explain himself more than that.

"I believe I remember hearing her murmur, once she was ready in garde position with a katana in her hand and that Zoro-san was encouraging her to attack…" explained Brook while recollecting the scene in question, "… something like "But if I touch you, you might get hurt!'…"

SHIN. Another silence of stupefaction fell on the group of pirates.

"Touching Zoro with a katana, you've got to be damned strong for that!" commented Usopp with an incredulous expression.

"I am quite sure, bearing in mind her personality, that she didn't even consider her probability of success at touching him, but rather the risk of hurting someone in the process…" sighed Robin with an half-amused half-disapproving smile.

"Hum, definitely…" added Nami, "Though since she manage to dodge and even counter some of Zoro's attacks, maybe she might be able to touch him… But well, touching him doesn't mean she'll hurt him! Even if she's nimble, her strength is no match for his resistance, I even wonder if the blade will leave some damage…"

"Humph… You don't understand the problem!" ranted Zoro while averting his eyes in an annoyed expression, "I'd thought about forcing her to attack, but… Tsk, after that, how did you want me to keep on attacking her? There was this weird voice in my head saying that I might also hurt her if she wasn't warding off…"

SHIN. A big part of the audience suddenly surprised themselves by thinking they've just heard something very weird and very unusual coming from their merciless swordsman, but they dusted away this paradoxical and disturbing feeling out of their mind as quickly as it had arrived.

"What? What's the matter?" grumbled Zoro with a menacing tone at seeing a couple of wondering gazes still pinned on him.

"Well… I think you'll never be able to do more inefficient than our Second Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet…" softly mocked Robin with a very steady look for the aforementioned Commander.

"Oh, cut it out, will you…?" mumbled Ace while averting his eyes, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"No but she's right, come on Ace!" didn't take the hint Luffy while taking a lecturing pose in front of his brother, "You said you were going to teach her some close-ranged positions…"

The last expression made several members of the audience tilt – or laugh depending on who – but Luffy didn't seem to notice the dual meaning of his comment.

"… and then nothing! You just stopped your fight after five minutes, after having just blocked her hits without attacking on your side, how do you want the both of you to make some progress like that, hum?" pursued Luffy with his cheeks puffed in a sulking expression, and without noticing the last part of the sentence had made Ace avert his eyes even more, "Since she had no problem hitting you, I'd hoped you could do something, come on!"

"Tsk…" groaned Ace while letting his eyes fall under the shadow of his hat to hide his embarrassed expression, categorically refusing to give his not-perceptive brother of his an explanation.

_I'd like to see how he would get it on! Or not… after all, he's the kind of idiot who would fight without holding out even against Nami… and that's precisely why I didn't want him to train her… So how could this Baka-Otouto understand? Understand what it feel like to see her in front of me, her fists in position, her eyes determined, completely ready to receive hits way too powerful for her but still not stepping back…_

_Tsk… there's really not one to make up for the other, these two helpless stubborn Baka! And to think that she's always afraid of what might hurt others… Grr, how come she doesn't worry about what could hurt HER?_

Ace felt his cheeks become a little more red at remembering the other reason that had made him lose focus during the training, the reason why his eyes had more often wandered on the face – and more precisely the chin area – of his opponent rather than on her fists

_And well… there's also the problem of our last face-to-face at Fimbul… _thought he while feeling his body grow hotter at recollecting the 'encounter' in a majestic cherry tree in full blossom on an island formerly covered in snow.

And while Ace was moping over his incapacity to lay his hands on the one he had been supposed to train, Robin decided to resume the conversation.

"Isha-san, some progress on less violent techniques, maybe?" asked she while turning her head towards the little reindeer.

"Ah, good, good! When I explained her all the poisons and sleeping gas I've created, she asked a lot of questions and seemed really interested, even if I wasn't happy that she was flattering me that much, heehee, this stupid human…" was giggling Chopper at the remembrance of all the compliments he had received on his herbal preparations.

"Ooh?" tilted with interest all the pirates present, while mentally putting aside the joyful waddle of the little doctor that was seriously contrasting his insulting comment.

"So I explained her everything! The composition of each decoction, their impact and how to avoid them, what antidote to use, how to cope and cure every effect, which pill to use depending on the symptom…" pursued Chopper, still on his go under the euphoric motive of all the compliments he had received before.

SHIN. A small realization silence had fallen on the audience, everyone slowly analysing what such scientific teaching might bring as potential progress in the fighting ability of the pupil.

"So… in short… Instead of explaining her how to use all you stuff as weapons, you threw out at her all the methods to save the ones affected by your product?" resumed Sanji while raising an eyebrow in a doubtful expression.

"Yes!" exclaimed Chopper in a smile.

TILT. Chopper's smile vanished little by little and some drops of sweat starting appearing all around his face.

"Ah, hum… So, hum… that means… it's no good!" realised he at taking his head between his paws in a panicked and shocked expression.

"Of course not!" ranted Nami while baring her teeth, "There's really no one to make up for the others, tsk!"

"Well, for their defence, Kokkaishi-san, I think we should attribute this lack of progress to the pupil's personality…" calmly commented Robin.

"That's true, but…" grumbled Nami with a sulking expression.

"On my side, I tried to teach her several quick and bare-handed murder techniques, but it didn't seem to her liking…" added the archaeologist with a calm tone but a mysterious shadowy aura was floating around her eerie smile.

SHIN. Another silence fell on the audience, and drops of sweat started to appear on the temples of the pirates at the mention of a concept such as 'murder' and 'assassinate'.

"And in the end, she spent more time trying to put back the training puppets anatomy parts in order than focusing on the nuances of clutch I had demonstrated…" pursued Robin on the same platonic tone, "I kind of understand she feels empathic for the victims, but I believe it's dispensable as long as we're still going to grind their spine or break their neck…"

A cold and heavy shiver made the audience shudder a bit, and several of them even silently wished for Robin's opponents to be dealt with in a single blow.

"So, in brief, we've got nothing!" finally summed up Nami with a deep sigh.

"Bah, and you, Nami? You didn't try to teach her something?" asked Usopp with a surprised expression, "You're not very strong to start with, you too… but you still can win a fight now!"

"Are you really THAT stupid?" screeched the mikan-haired navigator while sending Usopp her darkest glare to answer the last part of his comment, "My ClimaTact is unique, and even if she had the same as me, it's not like she'll be able to use it the same way I do…"

"And if it's about electric sparks, she'll just say she can do it perfectly with her power…" reminded Ace with an amused smile at the remembrance of some of his nakamas that had – painfully – tested such electric sparks after having behaved rudely with her on the Moby Dick.

"Indeed… and that's not our goal here…" said Robin while mentally weighting what options were left to solve their problem, "I think it would be wiser to try and make her a weapon in the descent of Kokaishi-san's one, so that she can use techniques different from pure strength or dangerous blades, which definitely don't fit her disposition…"

"A weapon? Yeah sure, that sounds like a suuper idea!" instantly approuved Franky with a thumb up for the archaeologist.

"Franky, you're in?" asked Luffy with stars gleaming in his eyes, "You're going to build a new weapon, so COOL!"

"Hey, that won't be for you…" tried to chime in Nami to moderate their captain's enthusiasm.

"Yeah, Franky, you should be able to assist the great Usopp-sama on the project, if you feel up to such a great challenge, of course!" nodded Usopp while scratching his nose with a very proud air.

"So, let's see…" pursued Franky while taking out from one of his body's hidden trap doors a notebook filled with blueprints copied from Vegapunk's workshop, "How about transforming her into a cyborg with a suuper dangerous body?"

"WHAT THE HELL/HECK ARE YOU SAYING?" shouted in unison the rest of the group – except Luffy and Chopper who already had fallen into abysses of fantasizing admiration, their tongues dropping out of their jaws while murmuring things like 'lasers' and other weapons 'so cool'.

"I think we should rather give her a weapon easy to use, long-range to avoid her from getting hurt in close-range battle, and if possible, something she can use to neutralize her opponents instead of killing them… If not, she won't want to use it!" sighed Robin while finally putting back the conversation on a normal course.

"Tsk, do you realize we've already tried all the weapons and fighting styles we know and that it was useless?" reminded Zoro with an annoyed sigh.

"We just need to think about a more delicate style…" retorted Sanji while glaring at the swordsman, "Not that a boot like you would understand, Marimo…"

SNAP. A vein instantly showed up on Zoro's temple.

But right before the two eternal rivals could come to blows – rather kicks and slashes – a joyful and carefree voice interrupted their dispute.

"Sanji!" called the smiling girl wearing a white dress from the door of the kitchen, "The dish you asked me to keep an eye on has just finished cooking, and the table is laid!"

SHIN. Everyone's eyes wandered on the one with a peaceful and radiant smile who had stuck her head through the gap of the door to call the chef.

They nearly had the illusion of seeing a daisy sprouting on her head, as if to represent all her innocence and carefreeness.

"Is something wrong?" asked Fuu while tilting her head on the side, surprised to see her nakamas stare at her with perplexed expressions instead of rushing in the dining room to come and eat.

_No but what are we going to do with her? _sighed in unison all the others.


	27. Transition, Silver Wind

**Original Happening Date: **April 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes: **Adventure, Romance, Comedy  
**Number of Chapters: **1 **/ Words: **4900  
**Rating: **T  
**Credits:** All characters beside the two OC (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders across the world.

* * *

Step-Up: A New Breeze ~Part 2~

…

**GRAND LINE, THOUSAND SUNNY**

Days had flown by since the Thousand Sunny had left Fimbul towards the next island, just a bit before WhiteBeard's Fleet which had needed more time to stock their supplies.

Everyone had changed clothes and put away the white outfits from the Ice Palace in their wardrobes, and resumed their posts on-board. The ship had gone through a pour-down of lightning bolts which had surprised everyone, but Nami had safely guided everyone out of the storm, not even surprised by the phenomenon, which had made everyone wonder where on earth she could have learned how to cope with such a strange weather.

Then the sea had calmed down, and everyone had resumed their routine tasks, Nami drawing her maps while regularly checking the Log Pose, Zoro taking a nap when he wasn't training, Sanji preparing the meals for the whole crew, Robin reading peacefully in the aquarium-living-room, Chopper preparing new herbal remedies with the plants he had collected back at Fimbul, and the others to their idle occupations.

One of them, though, had been carefully avoiding to be idle, running around to offer her help to everyone to get her body as busy as possible in order to prevent her mind from wandering away. But her I'm-too-busy-to-have-time-to-think wilful attitude finally started to wear off, and on such a nice afternoon, the weather being calm, the dinner being still in several hours, and Chopper needing no immediate assistance, she had unfortunately all the leisure to sit on the railing and let her thoughts catch her back.

And the first conclusion she reached at feeling her cheeks starting to burn at the remembrance of what had happened when leaving Fimbul was:

_Grr… This damned stupid brother, everything is his fault!_

_I knew Shounen mangas were corrupting minds! Maniac, ecchi, pervert, hentai! What he told me at Fimbul… grr… Does he even know how hard it is now for me to face Ace without blushing, now? It's entirely his fault!_

_Hum… well… Ace's fault too… What did he think he was doing, this baka? Even if it was as revenge to tease me about the kiss during the Buster Call, he should know that girls don't take kisses as lightly as guys do… No matter what Anne said about him not being interested in girls, I've rather got the impression he knows how too well how to turn their head on… A damned PLAYBOY for sure! Skirt-chaser, I'm quite certain… flirting and provoking… and who seems awfully amused by my reactions too… Grr, a playboy, that's definite! Not the same style as Sanji, but worse: the kind who just wait for girls to fall straight into his lap! Danger, danger, big big DANGER! I hate it!_

Fuu heaved a deep sigh and gazed at the waves hitting the Thousand Sunny's hull with a determined yet regretful expression.

_I even remember Clow saying that Ace was one of the One Piece characters having the most numerous fan-girls in our world… No wonder it would be the same here: Marco's nakamas even confirmed he could have all the girls he'd want…_

_Sigh, I feel so vexed that he would put me in the same basket as all the other girls! Grr, come on, I'm not the kind of brainless girl who just like someone for his looks or his fame… and I'm not a perverted fan-girl either, I'll definitely prove Clow that I'm not! So there's definitely no way I'll just let myself get trapped and be a mere digit added to the list of conquests of one of the most famous pirates of Grand Line – on top of him being a manga character…_

And even if her heart was crying out loud to her not to take such an arbitrary decision on a whim, Fuu rather listened to her feminine pride and wilfully promised herself never to let her guard down again in front of Ace.

Her eyes slowly followed the skyline and wandered at the poop. The Moby Dick wasn't in sight anymore since yesterday, Nami's navigation skills having excelled so much in the storm that even the experienced pirates from the New World had been distanced.

_I guess WhiteBeard also let us distance them on purpose… He's the one who decided to send the both of us on the Thousand Sunny after all, estimating that for now, it was safer for Ace and me to travel with Luffy and the others than to stay on the Moby Dick and the rest of the Fleet…_

_Well, it's true that officially, the Marine is expecting to find us with WhiteBeard or his allies rather than with Luffy, but it's still a big bet they took, I think… And above all, I hate involving my nakamas in the mess I put everyone in, now that the World Government knows about my power… It's already my fault if this universe is a mess and that paradoxes are happening, I would be glad not to add another burden on them by my presence on-board, sigh…_

_But then again, I doubt anyone could turn down an invitation from Luffy, with his idiotic-warm-expecting grin… At least I couldn't… Hum, but I thought Ace would oppose this plan a bit more… Even if it was an order from his Captain and Oyaji, I was really surprised to see him accept without a hint of hesitation! And Luffy too, since he's not the kind to be impressed by an order from WhiteBeard, he could have refused if he really didn't want to comply with the plan… I would have never expected him to welcome Ace as his crewmate – well, temporary crewmate, but still – since the both of them had always said they will live their adventures on their own, with their own nakamas… so why…?_

Fuu raised her eyes towards the blue sky of Grand Line, letting her mind fly away with the seagulls as if hoping to ask them an answer to her question. Two young seagulls were chasing after one another, as if in a friendly competition, and Fuu couldn't help but smile faintly at seeing a resemblance between the two birds and the two black-haired brothers who had been competing during meals, during card-playing, and even during training these past few days.

_Oh well… Here I am, back with the Mugiwaras again… and twenty-four-seven with Ace… I managed to pretend that nothing had happened these past few days, but it's really embarrassing to see him looking at me like that… as if he was expecting me to change my behaviour because of what he has done… Tsk, this damn playboy! I'm going to prove him that there are girls who do NOT swoon over the slightest smile of his, grr…_

But Fuu was finally brought back from her own world of revolt and embarrassment by the sound of steps calmly approaching in her back.

"Robin…?" she asked in a smile for the archaeologist coming her way.

"Nagahana-kun has something to show us." Robin calmly said, "And everyone else is already in his workshop."

"Huh? Oh, I'm coming, sorry to have made everyone wait!" Fuu apologized while quickly joining her nakama to go and meet with the rest of the crew.

* * *

**THOUSAND SUNNY, USOPP'S FACTORY**

Under the deck, in Usopp's workshop, the sniper was already proudly presenting his new invention to Luffy and Chopper when Fuu entered the room with Robin.

The two young women waited patiently for all the 'So cool!' exclamations and star-shaped eyes of their nakamas to be finished before finally stepping in.

"Ah, Fuu!" Luffy exclaimed at seeing her drawing near.

And he grabbed her by the arm to drag her towards Usopp's desk, quite impatient to share with her the object of their admiration.

"Look, look!" Luffy grinned while pointing at the object that the sniper was still holding proudly with both hands to show it to anyone around.

It was a chiselled silver pistol with smoothbore barrel, incredibly beautiful from Fuu's point of view, but she couldn't help but think it was looking a bit – _a lot _– off comparing to the usual style of weapons one could find on Grand Line.

"It's…?" Fuu began, quite perplexed, but her question was immediately interrupted by Luffy.

"It's because Ace and I, we've told you a lot of times that we don't want you to use your power too much, but you're not listening to us!" he ranted while crossing his arms in front of his chest, "So I'd thought about putting you Kairoseki handcuffs all the time, but Robin told us she had another idea…"

_Safe…! _Fuu sighed in relief, inwardly blessing Robin for her intervention in the matter.

"Oh, I just told them about what you had explained me at the Beaver's Onsen." Robin said with a neutral expression, "Since your Devil Fruit power is mainly useful for your defence, if we deprive you of it, you won't be able to protect yourself, let alone fight… And we perfectly know you hate being useless in a fight, thus I suggested the use of a weapon for such situations, so that your energy can be spared…"

_W…? This silver gun is… for ME?_

_Oh, so that's the reason why they made me participate in their training these past few days: they were trying to teach me a way to fight… But wait a second, I never trained with a gun, so how come they've reached the conclusion it would be the best way to fight for me? What was wrong with all the other ones?_

"Yeah, it was a suuper surprise at first, hearing that you would need a weapon even though you're suuper more powerful than Luffy or Zoro when you want to…" Franky began while massaging his neck, "But we didn't know… Tsk, you've never told us it was bad for you to use your Devil Fruit, komusume!"

"So… sorry…" Fuu instinctively apologized at seeing the tall blue-haired cyborg look at her with an air of friendly reproach.

_W… _Fuu suddenly titlted, and cold sweats slowly run down her spin, _Please tell me I heard him wrong… Please tell me he didn't say he thought I was more powerful than Luffy and Zoro… Please tell me Clow didn't hear that comment just now, if not I am dead meat for having involuntarily been labelled more powerful than the heroes of his favourite manga…_

"You didn't want us to worry, hum? Waaahh, you bakayaro!" Franky started to cry while wiping his running nose on his arm, his sobbing bringing Fuu back to the main topic.

"So… sorry…" Fuu apologized once more while trying to comfort him by patting his shoulder.

"If you had the I-can't-fight-without-collapsing disease, I would have already given you a lot of tips about how to avoid a fight, you know!" Usopp added with a lecturing tone.

"Fuu-san… The fact that you've hidden such a thing from us, it really breaks my heart…" Brook commented while putting his bony hand on his chest, "… though I don't have a heart anymore, yohohoho, Skull Joke!"

_Oh my… Why did Robin and Luffy tell the others? That's already hard to have Ace and everyone worrying about me, I'd be better off an oversentimental cyborg, a professional running-away liar and a screamingly funny skeleton, sigh…_

Fuu gazed at them, and couldn't help more tender opinions to temper with her previous statement at seeing her nakamas obviously concerned over her health.

_Well… _she smiled faintly, _I can't ignore their efforts for me now, I guess…_

"So, since Robin said you probably won't want my advices to run away from battles… TADAM!" presented Usopp while holding out the silver gun to Fuu, "We designed it based on some drawing Franky had found in Vegapunk's lab…"

_Oh, so that's why it looks really different than the actual technology of Grand Line… Vegapunk, huh?_

"… we made it light enough so that even a girl can carry it, because you're not as strong as a Proud Warrior of the Sea, of course…" Usopp pursued while Fuu was examining the gun in her hands, "… and we added some Jet Dials to Franky's propulsion technique, and…"

_Franky's propulsion technique? Oh, some strong 'Coup de Vent' blasts, huh… __So that's why this gun doesn't have a magazine of cartridges: it actually doesn't fire bullets… That's a relief, somehow…_

Fuu suddenly felt a soft and warm pulsation under her fingers, and she turned the gun to examine its other side: a big pearl gleaming with garnet highlights was set into the cross, at the emplacement for the magazine.

_But… this… this pearl is…?_

"… and also the Pearl the Ice Dragon had given you!" Usopp was finishing his explanation, "Chopper told us what it was, and it was amazing to see how powerful it was for such a small thing! So we put it into the pistol, but it seems like none of us can use it to full power because of that, now…"

"I told you it's because the Dragon gave it to Fuu," Chopper chimed in while jumping on the desk to come closer to Fuu and the pearl-adorned weapon, "So I think it's normal if only Fuu can use it and not other humans!"

Fuu held back a sweat-drop at the 'humans' facing her and who were disputing the claim of using the revolver – a humanoid reindeer, a cyborg, a skeleton… - before the faint pulsation of the revolver pearl brought back her attention on the weapon.

_Hum… They really worked a lot on it…! I guess I can't tell them I despise firearms now, huh… Although if it only fires wind and ice, it's quite a progress… it might not be too harmful._

"Oh, and here is the manual for it!" Usopp concluded while holding out a small booklet to his hazelnut-haired nakama.

BONG. Fuu didn't even had time to take the item, Usopp had been smashed on the floor, a huge bump on his skull caused by Nami's fist, who was now tearing apart the aforementioned booklet with a vein bulging on her forehead.

"Your damned MANUALS can go to the devil! A demonstration will be more useful!" the navigator claimed while remembering with annoyance the useless manual of her ClimaTact back at Alabasta.

"Hum… that's…" Fuu began, but she couldn't utter another word before she felt herself being dragged out of Usopp's workshop.

And before she had time to properly thank Franky and Usopp for their invention, everyone was on the main deck, Luffy having leaded the group by enthusiastically – and unceremoniously – pulling Fuu outside to do as Nami had proposed, meaning trying on the gun.

SHIN. The wind flew by on the empty deck.

"Hum…" Luffy grumbled while finally letting go of Fuu's arm to put his hand at the level of his eyes, "We need a target…"

SHIN. The wind flew a few more seconds on the desert ocean around them.

But as if to answer Luffy's wish, the fishing rod he and Chopper had let dipping in the sea when they had rushed towards Usopp's workshop started to tremble and shake more and more.

"Great!" Luffy exclaimed while dashing towards the rod and seizing it with both hands, "Fuu, just use it on the fish!"

Fuu's face crumbled instantly at the idea of firing a gun at poor fish which had had the unfortunate fate of taking the bait but tried to regain composure at remembering a gun firing only wind and ice couldn't possibly be lethal – especially considering ice was another form of water so might melt quickly when falling back into the sea, thus releasing the poor fish.

_But honestly, what would they have done if I had not known how to use a gun, huh? Even if Shounen manga characters are naturally gifted for using any kind of weapons, they could consider the fact there are some people leaving in a world where fighting is not your daily routine… The last time I touched a gun was at some festival for a shooting contest back when I was 10, you know…_

And with a sigh, Fuu cocked her pistol by pulling back the cylinder, before readying her right index on the trigger. She put her left hand around her right one to be ready for the back-firing impact and turned the gun towards the railing, targeting the – estimated – spot at which was going to emerge the fish – or rather shark or even maybe whale – considering the strength Luffy was apparently putting into the fishing rod to pull the animal out of the sea.

_And everyone else is watching with anticipating faces… I'd better do my best not to disappoint them, since they seem so eager to see how powerful Usopp's and Franky's new weapon is…_

SPLASH. In a spray of water that flooded half of the deck, Luffy's catch appeared.

SHIN. The micro drops of water dangled in mid-air during the second of silence that fell on the deck at realising the nature of the prey that had been pulled out of the sea.

_A SEA-KING? Tell me I'm day-dreaming! _Fuu thought at feeling her eyes widen to grasp a bit more fully the immensity of the blue-purple creature that was probably twenty or thirty times the Sunny's size, _Is it even possible to fish such a thing? Even in a manga… no wait, more than that… even in a video-game, you couldn't reasonably FISH a Sea-King? This world is definitely completely irremediably crazy!_

CLONG. On their side, the rest of the crew was displaying a nice variety of expressions more or less comical: Luffy was ecstatic, his mouth wide open in awesomeness; Chopper and Franky had their jaws unhooked of surprise; Nami and Usopp were panicking with faces blue with fear; Brook had nearly dislocated himself under the shock; Zoro and Sanji had respectively clenched their teeth and opened their eyes wide; Robin was unblinking, as usual; and Ace had barely raised an eyebrow.

"Oh my…" Fuu sighed while trying to calm down her heartbeat enough to focus on aiming the neck of the huge animal – which would be hard to miss even without really aiming at it, but it was pure reflex.

_Please make it give the Sea King a hit annoying enough to make it dive again in Grand Line, before our trio of Monsters could aim at it to transform it into meat supplies… _she thought at pressing the trigger.

DOMM. A thumbing deflagration left the canon of the silver pistol.

The whirlwind of icy gust which had left the thin barrel then widened into a cyclone on white and cold light even more powerful than the Thousand Sunny's 'Coup de Vent' and dashed through the air saturated with water drops to collide against the body of the gigantic sea creature.

_Ouch… Wh…? _thought Fuu at feeling the wind being knocked out of her before violently sending her flying backward – hitting several unknown shapes in the process before colliding forcefully in the railing at the other end of the deck – under the strength of the deflagration.

"So… sorry…" she mumbled while blinking and trying to get back on her feet.

"Sure/Everything for you, my goddess/Mublrgh." answered three masculine voices, that Fuu identified as coming from her back or from under her.

"Sorry!" Fuu apologized with a puppy tone at seeing the chaos caused by her flying backward – Ace had successfully caught her in his arms along the flight, getting slightly smashed in her place, Sanji had unsuccessfully missed to catch her back, getting quite smashed in the process, and Usopp had unfortunately been in the way and had ended up dreadfully smashed under everyone else when the whole group had collided.

And everyone's eyes wandered back on the – real, not collateral – target to see the result of the attack.

CLONG. In the silence that had fold on the deck, the jaws of everyone – Fuu included this time – unhooked in a significant and synchronized noise.

"SO COOL!" exclaimed Luffy with star-shaped eyes.

_WHAT THE HELL IS THAT…? _inwardly panicked Fuu at contemplating the Sea King state.

The huge animal was now floating about a good hundred metres away from the Thousand Sunny – and Fuu couldn't even determine if it was because the monster had went flying-diving or if it was because the ship had glided backwards because of the attack – its eyes in whirlpool-shape, and a thick coating of ice was half-covering it, making it sink into the waves, as an iceberg whose density would be too high for Grand Line's waters.

In front of such a scene, Robin and Ace let escape a small whistle of admiration, and the others slowly put back their jaws back in place.

Then time slowly resumed its normal course, and everyone rushed towards Fuu – who was still lying sitting on the deck near the nakamas she had dragged in the mess, with a flabbergasted and panicked expression – to share their joy and compliment with her.

_KYAAAAA! My brother is going to kill me!_

_Why did they give me such a devastating weapon? Between my incredible out-of-this-world Devil Fruit and THAT, how am I supposed to go unnoticed on Grand Line? Such a jinks… a really really big jinks…! Clow is going to chew me hard-core for sure!_

"Fuu, that was suuper!" Franky congratulated her while affectionately patting her head, "A suuper demonstration!"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Fuu snapped while baring her teeth, "What's with this super dangerous thing?"

"Ah, hum…" Franky hesitated, taken aback by seeing the usually calm and smiling girl so much on the nerves, "But, hum… Don't worry, there's… a power setting…"

"Setting?" Fuu repeated, a bit surprised and arching a suspicious eyebrow.

"Look, here!" Franky showed by pointing at the small scale chiselled on the pistol along the cylinder, "The more you pull back when cocking it, the more powerful the hit…"

"Oh…! I'm sorry Franky…" Fuu instantly calmed down at realising it had been her fault if the deflagration had been so strong against the Sea King.

And indeed, when trying again while cocking the pistol to the lowest setting, the projectile was taking the shape of small ball of icy wind that Ace had no problem to deaden in a snap of enflamed fingers.

_Safe…! On the seven settings, the 'One' is for this little bubble and the 'Six' is the one which sent the Sea King flying… I should be able to manage: I just have to stay between 'Two' and 'Four'…_

"Can I ask why you didn't make me such a powerful weapon when I had asked you for one?" Nami asked to Usopp while sulkily pointing at Fuu and her pistol, irritation palpable in her voice.

"It's not my fault, Nami!" Usopp retorted, "Franky wasn't with us at that time… And well, it's strong because of the Ice Dragon's Pearl, mainly…"

"Yeah, when we tested it on our side with the Pearl on, even at full power, we'd barely succeeded in destroying a barrel…" Franky said while massaging his chin, "I even thought of taking it off since the gun had been more powerful without it, but…"

"I told you the Dragon had created a bond between Fuu and the Pearl," Chopper insisted for the umpteenth time, "So only Fuu can use it!"

"Yeah… but it's still weird to see it being so powerful now… It's almost as if the Pearl was acting as a safety catch so that no one else can use it…" Franky paused with a disapproving tone, "I don't like weapons being too smart, tsk…"

But Franky's reflexions on the self-awareness of weapons was interrupted by a jumping-all-over-the-place Luffy who had come to ask if he could have the same weapon for himself, and the discussion degenerated into some bumps from Nami's fist, some requests about lasers and other gadgets, and a huge mess as it was usual for the Mugiwaras.

_Oh my… _Fuu thought at contemplating the situation with a weary drop of sweat appearing on her temple.

And when Luffy finally pulled himself out of the mess, he pointed at Fuu with a very determined expression.

"So, Fuu!" he began on a serious and lecturing tone, "Now that you've got this really cool pistol, you'd better always have it with you because I don't want you to use your power in battle anymore! Captain's order!"

SHIN. Fuu blinked a couple of times in answer to such an ultimatum and finally smiled softly at thinking that Luffy had started to get to know her and had already taken out the heavy word of 'order' to make her comply with the request, even if he had unfortunately for him only said 'for battles'.

"Sure… I'll do my best!" she promised with a genuinely happy smile for everyone, "Thanks Usopp, thanks Franky! I'll take good care of it!"

And on these thanks, she wanted to put away the pistol… and started to look at her outfit with a troubled expression.

She had also put away the white pleated dress from the Ice Palace in a wooden chest in the girls' cabin some days ago and was now wearing a knee-level sleeveless dress with ecru flounces, tied with a lot of laces but without a single pocket, never minding a holster-belt.

Since the episode of the clothes disappearance/reappearance at Fimbul, Fuu had realised she had found there a pretty useful way of filling in her wardrobe, and had therefore politely refused all of Nami's mini-skirts and Robin's low-cleavaged tops to create by magic a whole collection of clothes matching her taste and body shapes better – which meant clothes with more fabric than the ones of her two friends – _do they at least realise that not everyone has as nice a body as theirs, or is it that they enjoy making me complex on it?_

And she was now quite happy she had managed to create a lot of different outfits before Ace – followed by Luffy – had realised that she had used her power for such a FUTILE thing and gave her a huge telling-off… soon followed up by a third party who had popped in, Clow's communication mirror even trembling under indignation for having learned for what purpose she had used her absolute power…

That having been said, Fuu had unfortunately not forecasted to create a holster in her little collection, and she was now starting to regret it. She was looking at her outfit from every possible angle, looking for a way to make the pistol fit, but in vain.

"Where can I…" she began to mumble, the silver gun still in her hand.

"If you're looking for a place to put away the pistol, we can find a nice solution, hihihi…" grinned Nami on a pert tone, before walking towards her nakama.

Fuu had barely time enough to think that Nami's smile seemed up-to-no-good before she felt her hazelnut hair-curls falling in cascade on her shoulders, the mikan-haired navigator having pulled out the long ecru ribbon she had used to tie up her hair.

And in the span of a second, Nami pursued her little trick.

"Kyaa…!" Fuu blushed furiously when Nami made the petticoats of her dress fly high while taking the silver gun in one hand and tie it up on to the right thigh of her hazelnut-haired nakama with the silky ribbon.

Tree little lashing knots and four little blushes on the guys' cheeks – or bones – later, Nami had transformed the long ribbon into a silky holster and pulled down Fuu's dress on her legs, one of them being now garlanded with an incredibly powerful silver pistol.

"Here it is! Quite practical, well hidden, and that should discourage a couple of skirt-chasers to play with fire…" Nami grinned with a self-satisfied expression and a short mocking glance for the group of guys behind her which had all either fainted in a puddle of blood or averted their eyes to hide their embarrassment.

_G… grr… _Fuu blushed furiously, so embarrassed she couldn't even think about anything to retort her friend, _Did I do something to her and she's taking her revenge or something? What is she talking about 'discourage'? She just displayed my legs to the whole crew and plastered a dangerous weapon against my thigh… Is she trying to turn me into some heroine of action movie?_

"F… Fuu-chwan…" Sanji mumbled when finally regaining consciousness after having fainted under the loss of blood, "This 'femme fatale' style is so perfect for you, it really matches…"

But Sanji's compliment – accompanied by a twirling movement destined to make him jump on the hazelnut-haired girl to hug her – was stopped mid-way when a strong hand grabbed him by the collar and pinned him back on the floor next to Chopper who was still lecturing him about the blood loss, and therefore far-away from the newly promoted 'femme fatale'.

"Hey… Fuu-komusume has something to defend herself now…" Franky teased with a mocking grin for the one who was still glaring at the cook he had pinned on the floor, "… against him… or even you!"

And Franky patted Ace's shoulder under his huge hand with a laughing expression.

"So you'd better be suuper careful when you undress her, now…" he whispered with a conniving tone for WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

"Tsk…!" Ace screeched while dusting away the cyborg's hand with a shrug of shoulder, before averting his eyes to hide his flushed cheeks, "You get it wrong…!"

_Even I don't really get it… _he thought with a strange bitter feeling of incertitude in his mouth at seeing the hazelnut-haired girl acting as if nothing had happened at Fimbul.

"Heehee… Sure, sure…" Franky joked around while sending a huge friendly clap in Ace's back, having perfectly noticed that something must have happened between their two new nakamas, even if he had no idea what.

Near the ship railing, perfectly unaware of the guys' conversation, Fuu had overcome her previous embarrassment and was now innocently commenting the power of the Dragon's Pearl with Robin and Nami.

Chopper and Luffy soon joined them and the latter started to want and lift Fuu's skirt to borrow the gun and try it himself, but he only reaped a monumental punch from his navigator and a kick from his cook. Fuu even had to try and calm down everyone, her both hands risen in a weary expression punctuated by an amused yet embarrassed smile.

Ace gazed at her during a few seconds and finally heaved a small sigh at thinking he should probably do the same and act as if nothing had happened instead of waiting for something that obviously wasn't coming.

And while crooking his usual smile, he went to join the conversation, collaring his little brother to scratch his head with his fist to remind him not to steal other people's toys…


	28. Transition, SP, SongFic Luffy's Birthday

**Original Happening Date: **5th May 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes: **Friendship  
**Pairings: **LuNa  
**Number of Chapters: **SP **/ Words: **4280  
**Rating: **K  
**Credits:** Lyrics of the song: "Souviens-toi Du Jour" by Mylène Farmer, PV at YouTube: watch?v=SVjWUlwXuwE / All characters beside the two OCs (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders across the world.  
**Guest Star:** Clow, alias Clowsama (.net/u/1552380/Clowsama)

* * *

Song-Fic: Luffy's Birthday ~Souviens-Toi du Jour (Remember the Day)~

…

**THOUSAND SUNNY, STUDY & LIBRARY**

"Rosa, Rosa, Rosam… Rosae, Rosae, Rosa…" was humming Fuu, her quill pen beating the rhythm in the air along the intonations.

POF. A familiar noise made her turn her head.

"Latin…?" spoke Clow in a surprised tone while arching an eyebrow.

CRASH. Fuu's face collapsed on the desk in startle at seeing her brother's face floating in a mirror some mere ten centimetres away from hers.

_Grr… I should be used to it… I should be used to it… Tsk, and I should also talk to Mom about the way she's educated him! What is the big idea with appearing out of nowhere and barging onto people without prior warning?_

"Clow…" sighed Fuu while resuming her working position at the desk, "You enjoy startling me, am I wrong?"

"Nope, you're right!" grinned Clow in a provocative expression, "So… what were you singing Latin declensions for?"

"Well…" answered Fuu in monotone, without really looking at her brother, "Robin asked me to help her on some translation, so here I am, reading some Latin even though I hated it back at school… And well, the problem is also that Robin is starting to get quite suspicious about the fact that I can read languages she's never seen in this world while I can't even decipher the basic alphabet used on Grand Line…"

"You can't…?" titled Clow, frankly perplexed, "Wait a second, you can't read the newspaper here, for instance?"

"Of course not… It does not resemble any language I've learned!" sulked Fuu, a bit vexed by her brother's insinuation.

"Weird… Did I make a mistake in the character insertion process…?" wondered out loud Clow while massaging his chin, deep in thoughts.

"Insertion process?" tilted Fuu, the comment making her leave the parchment and books she had been studying up until now to gaze earnestly at her interlocutor.

"Well, you can't really expect me to send the both of us here without at least some preparation, could you? What kind of author would that make me, hum?" mocked he with a high and mighty expression.

Fuu's face instantly rounded into a weary expression of bored disbelief – the one she was always putting on her face each time her brother was beginning a how-important-authors-are speech.

"So… since the language used on Grand Line is nothing like anything we've learned before, I adjusted our comprehension abilities in order for us to be able to understand and express ourselves here…" explained Clow with the lecturing tone of someone who would have invented the hot water, "A bit like a skill update."

"W… wait!" interrupted Fuu while raising her hand, "You mean… you messed up with our brains for us to speak the Grand Line language as if it was normal… and that it should be the same for the written part?"

"Yes." simply nodded Clow with a small shrug, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"So you… YOU can read the newspaper here while I can't…?" pouted Fuu, more annoyed by the lack of success of her own 'character update' than by the fact her brother had messed up with her brain once again – something she had for long tried to dismiss as irremediable and useless to get angry over.

"Well, it seems that your brain didn't pick up on it as I had expected… And it's quite a simple trick too… Just what kind of retarded brain have you for making such a plain update bug, tsk…?" teased he in a sarcastic tone.

SNAP. A vein instantly bumped on Fuu's temple.

"Should I remind you that I understand more modern languages than you?" screeched she with irritation, deeply vexed by the last remark, "Grr… No more translation of the Shounen Jump website for you the next time you'll wonder why there isn't a One Piece chapter coming out for one week!"

"NO…! Wait! No, please! I take back what I just said! I'll fix up the thing about you not being able to read the newspaper! I'm fixing it right now!" panicked Clow with puppy eyes, "Please, everything but the Shounen Jump!"

Fuu's lips grew in a faint victory smile, before realizing a question still remained.

"Clow… Why did you come, by the way?" finally asked she with a curious expression, "It wasn't just to say 'Hi', huh? I know you're not the type to spend hours chatting on the phone with family or friends… never minding these mirrors…"

"Well…" began Clow with a half-serious half-jesting tone, "I need some help…"

_Help…? _inwardly repeated Fuu, quite puzzled to see her brother asking such a thing while he had always been all-mighty and mocking her on her uselessness ever since she had landed on Grand Line.

"Help for what?" asked she with an eager expression, her desire to be finally useful briefly supplanting the one of teasing her brother.

"It's Luffy's birthday in one week, and I want to give him something special…" grinned Clow with an enthusiastic smile, "But I have no idea… to be honest, I don't know what I could offer him that would be special enough…"

_Luffy, hum… It's so like Clow to want and make something special for his favourite manga hero while he sometimes forgets birthdays of family members… Otaku until Hell freezes over, huh…? Hihihi!_

"You're the one knowing more about Luffy, and yet you come to ask me for an idea…?" teased Fuu with a soft giggle.

"Well, yeah… It's because, you know, last time you were the one who organised the present for the big family birthday party…" answered Clow with a pout at being obliged to recognize he was counting on her for the idea, "So I thought it would be nice to do something in common for this time too…"

_Something in common… _thought Fuu while an idea was slowly making itself more and more precise in her head.

"Hum… Something all together sounds nice!" finally smiled she before jumping on her feet and rushing towards the door to go and meet with the rest of the crew, "I have a nice idea, heehee…"

"Hey, wait!" called Clow at seeing her already gone.

"Step out of this mirror and follow, if you'd like!" provoked Fuu with a grin, giving Clow some payback for all the times she had told him she disliked talking to him through this mirror, "If you want to be part of it, that is…"

* * *

**THOUSAND SUNNY, MAIN DECK**

Lady Luck was on a nice mood and Luffy was taking a nap near the his fishing rod when Fuu and Clow gathered everyone – Zoro and Ace only needing a shake or two from Nami to wake up from their own nap – to explain their idea for his birthday gift.

"You want to do WHAT?" gasped Zoro, dumbfounded, and his mouth twisting in an expression mixed with horror and embarrassment.

On his left, Usopp, Chopper, Franky and especially Brook had already accepted the suggestion with various boastful reactions and were already discussing the details.

"It is an interesting idea." accepted Robin with one of her faint joyful smile, making Fuu smile back of enthusiasm at seeing even the serious archaeologist accepting the idea.

"Yep, it's quite different from what we do usually, but I love it!" exclaimed Nami with a very motivated expression.

"In any case, we didn't have any special idea, except the huge piece of meat and cake I was planning on cooking him…" began Sanji while dragging on his cigarette, before his eyes turned into hearts and his voice started losing itself in a sugary tone, "And if my wonderful Nami-swan and Robin-chwan accept to take part in it, I can only say I will do anything for you, Fuu-chwan!"

"Well, I guess if it's for this Baka-Otouto, I can make an effort…" sighed Ace while readjusting his hat on his head with a conniving grin for the rest of the conspiring group.

"Yes! Let's do our best!" grinned Fuu with a warm smile, "Together!"

"Yosh!" agreed everyone with mixed cheers of enthusiasm.

"Do our best, hum…?" teased Clow with an _annoying_ smirk for his sister, "You'd better do more than your best if you don't want to pull everybody down!"

TILT. Fuu slowly turned her eyes towards her brother with a sulking expression.

"Clow… you're still there…?" screeched she with a forced smile, "How about you go and prepare for your own contribution?"

"No need, I already know my part by heart, heehee…" grinned he with a confident expression while making a lot of miniature mirrors appear in a twirl of quill pen.

_Grr… _sulked Fuu at agreeing he probably wasn't bluffing.

"So I'll be waiting to see how much your own efforts will pay off…" teased Clow while making a new mirror appear from his quill-pen to take leave, "See you soon, Neechan!"

_I'll prepare so well that you won't find anything to criticize, grr…_

* * *

**ONE WEEK LATER**

The week of preparations had flew by at full speed, and with plenty of funny situations and suspense, the main challenge having been to keep Luffy unaware of what was going on, and Fuu had often congratulated the Gods for having made Luffy so Luffy-like, as some tentative of Usopp, Brook, Zoro and even Ace to keep him busy while the other ones were conspiring had been awfully obvious…

But the day of the celebration finally came forth without the target realising what was going on, and the preparations had safely been secured – even for Fuu, although she had spent a couple of sleepless night trying to secretly catch on onto her own part.

The due day, at sunset, Luffy was brought to the main deck, where a huge banquet had been prepared, and the fantastic and usual noisy partying lasted for the whole of dinner-time.

Then, at the end of the meal, just when Sanji was bringing the huge cake to the table, Nami gave Fuu a conniving smile, and both of them stood up to claim attention.

"Hum hum…" coughed Fuu as a starter to her speech, once Nami had gained a relative silence with her imposing presence and threatening fists, "Luffy, we've prepared something special for you!"

"Eh…?" reacted Luffy while tilting a puzzled face on the side.

And his perplexity only increased as he saw the rest of his nakamas slowly rise from their seats with conniving smiles to go and meet with Fuu and Nami in the middle of the deck to face their captain.

Luffy even stopped eating as curiosity had exceptionally supplanted food in his mind.

POF. One of Clow's mirror suddenly appeared in mid-air above the 10 pirates standing on the deck, soon followed by lots of others.

POF. POF. POF. POF POF POF! The sky from the Thousand Sunny got covered with mirror screens, as if on a large modern concert scene.

Brook had sat at the piano, and Franky and Usopp had distributed to everyone their new inventions – designed during the week – which strongly resembled wireless microphones.

SHIN. A small silence fell on the deck, as everyone was gazing at each other with conniving expressions to show they were ready.

Brook gave a nod to his nakamas standing behind him, and his bony fingers softly brushed the piano keys, music starting with the notes of a calm song…

"_**Quand le vent a tout dispersé (When wind has dispersed everything),  
Souviens-toi (Remember)…  
Quand la mémoire a oublié (When memory has forgotten),  
Souviens-toi (Remember)…" s**_ang Fuu, since no one else had accepted to take the lead of this embarrassing initiative by singing the first verse.

Around them, Clow's mirrors had started showing some images of Luffy, a kaleidoscope of his past adventures and his meeting with everyone.

"_**Souviens-toi que l'on peut tout donner (Remember everything can be given)," **_sang Nami, gazing lovingly at her captain, as the screens were showing images of their fight against Arlong and the freedom won in East Blue.

"_**Souviens-toi que l'on peut tout briser (Remember everything can be scattered),"**_ sang Robin with a moved smile for their Senchou, memories of Enies Lobby following the previous images on the mirrors.

"_**Et si c'est un Homme (And since he's a man)…" **_sang Fuu, beginning the chorus while the screens were showing Luffy's face and his multiple expressions.

"_**Et si c'est un Homme (And since he's a man)…" **_mirrored Robin with her soprano voice.

"_**Lui parler d'amour à volonté (Talk to him about love)," **_pursued Nami, her tender eyes gazing at her captain and boyfriend.

"_**D'amour et d'amitié (About love and friendship)."**_ sang the three girls in chorus on the piano notes, while the rest of their nakamas were smiling faintly.

"_**Souviens-toi que l'on peut tout donner (Remember everything can be given)," **_rang out the low voice of Franky, while Clow's mirrors were showing some memories of Water Seven and the blueprints of Pluto that Franky had destroyed while trusting Mugiwara.

"_**Quand on veut, qu'on se rassemble (When we trust, when we gather)," **_chimed in the child-like voice of Chopper, while images of Drum Island and of the little reindeer joining them for their adventures were appearing on the screens.

"_**Souviens-toi que l'on peut tout briser (Remember everything can be scattered),"**_ sang Usopp while muffling a tear at seeing on the mirrors their escape from Enies Lobby on the Going Merry, before the ship had to leave them in a final goodbye.

"_**Les destins sont liés (Our fates are bond together),"**_ sang together the three pirates, while Clow's mirrors where showing parties and friendly celebrations between nakamas, on-board the Thousand Sunny.

"_**Et si c'est un Homme (And since he's a man)…" **_sang again Fuu, as the screen were showing Luffy's smiling and enthusiastic face again.

"_**Et si c'est un Homme (And since he's a man)…" **_mirrored Robin with a smile.

"_**Lui parler d'amour à volonté (Talk to him about love)," **_pursued Nami, with still the same loving expression.

"_**D'amour et d'amitié (About love and friendship)."**_ sang the three girls in chorus before everyone began together the main chorus, supported by the kaleidoscope of their past memories, together as nakamas.

" _**Le souffle à peine échappé (A mere breath, a new wind),"**_ on display inside the mirrors appeared a Jolly Roger with a straw hat, floating proudly in the ever-changing sky of Grand Line,_**  
"Les yeux sont mouillés (Eyes might get wet),"**_ there appeared memories of Nami, Robin, and the others in tears filled with regrets yet new hopes,_**  
"Et ces visages serrés (Faces might get tensed),"**_ there appeared images of Luffy, Zoro and the others' faces, hardened by determination,_**  
"Pour une minute (For a minute)," **_came the flashback of their search for the bomb at Alabasta,_**  
"Pour une éternité (For an eternity),"**_ came a kaleidoscope of joyful expressions when cheering Kampai all together,_**  
"Les mains se sont élevées (Hands raised to the sky),"**_ there appeared the moment when the crew was bidding good-bye to Vivi, their left arms risen in sign of friendship,_**  
"Les voix sont nouées (Voices hushed up),"**_ came a kaleidoscope of trustful smiles which didn't need any word to convey their feelings,_**  
"Comme une étreinte du monde (As if to embrace the world)," **_the mirrors showed the Gomu Gomu no Hug in which Luffy had crushed his nakamas when finally reuniting with all of them after Marine Ford,_**  
"A l'unisson (Together),  
A l'Homme que nous suivrons (For the man we'll follow)..." s**_ang everyone in unison, stretching their hands towards the one they were singing for, and whom they would follow until the end of the world.__

"Souviens-toi que le monde a change (Remember the world has changed),  
Au bruit des pas qui résonnent (Along the steps of the ones making their own way)…  
Souviens-toi des jours désenchantés (Remember these days full of ambition),  
Aux destins muets (Promises of an unknown fate)…"

__rang Ace's tenor voice, while Clow's mirrors were showing the progress of Luffy across Impel Down and Marine Ford, running restlessly to catch back onto his brother, before diffusing flashbacks of Luffy and Ace childhood memories, when they were two innocent children dreaming about a pirate life.

"_**Et si c'est un Homme (And since he's a man)…" **_sang once again Fuu, as the images of a smiling and strong-willed Luffy were following each other on the screens.

"_**Et si c'est un Homme (And since he's a man)…" **_mirrored Robin with a faint yet warm smile.

"_**Lui parler d'amour à volonté (Talk to him about love)," **_pursued Nami, her eyes enlightened with love and trust.

"_**D'amour et d'amitié (About love and friendship)."**_ sang the three girls in chorus before everyone began once more the main chorus, the mirrors glittering of common memories.

"_**Le souffle à peine échappé (A mere breath, a new wind),  
Les yeux sont mouillés (Eyes might get wet),  
Et ces visages serrés (Faces might get tensed),  
Pour une minute (For a minute),  
Pour une éternité (For an eternity),  
Les mains se sont élevées (Hands raised to the sky),  
Les voix sont nouées (Voices hushed up),  
Comme une étreinte du monde (As if to embrace the world),  
A l'unisson (Together),  
A l'Homme que nous suivrons (For the man we'll follow)..." s**_ang in unison all the crew – plus their two guests being as involved and proud of their brother/friend as the others – for their captain whom they were following because it was him and no one else.

"_**Souviens-toi que l'on peut tout donner (Remember everything can be given)," **_rang out the Zoro's voice – low voice eerily melodious for someone who had been quite reluctant to sing – while the mirrors where discreetly showing Thriller Bark and Kuma – scene which ending was only known by the Shichibukai, Zoro, Sanji, Robin and Clow, and partly as well by Fuu.

"_**Quand on veut, qu'on se rassemble (When we trust, when we gather)," **_chimed in Brook's light voice while the screens were diffusing memories of Laboon, of its promise and of Luffy inviting the skeleton musician in the crew.

"_**Souviens-toi que l'on peut tout briser (Remember everything can be scattered),"**_ sang Sanji with a confident – wishful seducing – pose, even if the mirrors in his back were showing the half-destroyed Baratie as he was leaving the restaurant-ship, tears running down his face as when bidding good-bye to Zeff.

"_**Les destins sont liés (Our fates are bond together),"**_ sang together the three men while images and memories of friendly – fighting, kicking, scolding, singing, laughing – moments with their captains were displaying on Clow's mirrors.

"_**Et si c'est un Homme (And since he's a man)…" **_sang one last time Fuu, as the screens were showing Luffy's most Luffy-like expressions and grins.

"_**Et si c'est un Homme (And since he's a man)…" **_mirrored Robin with a joyful smile.

"_**Lui parler d'amour à volonté (Talk to him about love)," **_pursued Nami, her hand stretched towards her boyfriend with an overjoyed and loving expression.

"_**D'amour et d'amitié (About love and friendship)."**_ sang the three girls in chorus for the last time, as everyone was smiling warmly before attacking the last main chorus.

"_**Le souffle à peine échappé (A mere breath, a new wind),  
Les yeux sont mouillés (Eyes might get wet),  
Et ces visages serrés (Faces might get tensed),  
Pour une minute (For a minute),  
Pour une éternité (For an eternity),  
Les mains se sont élevées (Hands raised to the sky),  
Les voix sont nouées (Voices hushed up),  
Comme une étreinte du monde (As if to embrace the world),  
A l'unisson (Together),  
A l'Homme que nous suivrons (For the man we'll follow)..." **_sang in unison all the pirates while dedicating their song to the extraordinary boy who had accepted them in his crew, giving them the opportunity to sail towards their dreams as he was striving towards his…

"_**Quand le vent a tout dispersé (When wind has dispersed everything),  
Souviens-toi (Remember)…  
Quand la mémoire a oublié (When memory had forgotten),  
Souviens-toi (Remember)…" **_sang Clow from the other side of his mirrors, finishing the last verse supported by everyone's chorus – everyone who wasn't finding the initiative that embarrassing in the end…

Around them, the mirrors were showing images of Luffy leaving for piracy on a small boat, his grin overflowing with enthusiasm at the thought of the big adventure awaiting him.

"…"

The notes of the piano softly deadened under Brook's fingers.

Clow's mirrors faintly switched off, one after another.

The chorus gradually hushed up, and everyone raised their eyes from their mikes towards Luffy.

SHIN. Everyone was gazing at him earnestly, awaiting his reaction to their little show.

But nothing came…

"…" Luffy was apparently frozen in his expressionless attitude, his eyes round and fixing his nakamas – or maybe the empty space in front of him.

SHIN. Everyone has by now converged around him, eyeing him with surprise and exchanging some puzzled glances at not seeing him react at all.

"Lu… Luffy…?" called Fuu, quite worried that he might not like their gift, and starting to feel tremendously guilty for having proposed this idea.

"Ah, hum…" reacted Luffy, the sound of his voice making everyone gaze more ardently at him, "Thanks, hum…"

Luffy was still with his usual neutral expression, but his face was gradually becoming redder and redder, rising until the top of his head before finally exploding in a small cloud of steam.

_He's embarrassed, he's embarrassed… _thought in unison all the singers, their lips stretching in wide grins.

They watched earnestly as Luffy was lowering his eyes on his tool, fiddling the wood under his fingers in a nervous fashion.

An ephemeral smile was sometimes enlightening his lips before being forced to disappear behind an embarrassed pout.

_He's happy! He's really really happy but surprisingly shy about it…_ chuckled the others.

"Happy Birthday…" murmured Nami to cut with the embarrassing silence, bending over her captain to kiss him briefly on the lips.

"Th… thanks…" muttered Luffy with still a pout.

"Happy Birthday, Luffy!" exclaimed joyfully Chopper and Usopp while jumping around him and grabbing him by the shoulders.

"Thanks…" hesitated Luffy while the corners of his lips were already stretching in a smile.

"Happy Birthday!" congratulated everyone while rocking him in their arms or patting his head or giving him warm grins.

And Luffy's rare and embarrassed hesitation definitely scattered to let his usual stupid overjoyed expression back on his face.

"Thank you!" exclaimed he while jumping all over the place with his contagious good humour.

The huge birthday cake and sake were shared – more or less fairly – among everyone and the party resumed with the customary effervescence to which the Mugiwaras were used.

Among bursts of laughter, Kampai, basket dances and loud applauding, everyone was having fun. Clow had even dropped a bit his quest to come and enjoy some partying, even if he was more earnest to systematically write on his notebook some details about the Mugiwaras or his dear LuNa shipping – to be sure to use them as references for his future stories – than taking part in the festivities.

Usopp, Luffy and the others had started a huge story-telling to complement the images that had went through Clow's mirrors previously, so that Ace and Fuu could be kept up to date to all the fantastic adventures that the whole crew had lived on for the past two years – even though the latter somehow already knew about most of it for having read them back in the real world, but hearing them from the people themselves and sharing their experiences in real flesh was delighting her more than any reading.

Brook had then gone on at the piano with lively and swinging pirate songs, and the whole crew was dancing and singing to their heart content – the mikes created by Usopp and Franky being the plus.

Smiles were floating on everyone's lips as they were watching their captain and so-special friend enjoying his birthday to the fullest.

"That's way more like them, hihihi…" giggled Fuu at watching Luffy dancing on the piano to accompany 'Bink's Sake' that Brook had started playing.

"Of course!" grinned Clow from the side-lines, "You're probably the only one on this Earth who could consider making some pirates sing a ballad as a tribute to their captain!"

_So what if it was a ballad, grr…? _thought Fuu as her cheeks were puffing in a pouting expression.

"It's not that I didn't think about it, you know…" muttered Fuu with a slightly annoyed expression at the remembrance of all the songs she had tried to dig from her memory in order to find the right idea for Luffy's gift, "I would have loved to find them a nice pirate song, but…"

"But…?" asked Clow while raising an eyebrow in a mocking expression, "You don't know any of them, hum… in your repertory mainly counting classical and ballads, heehee…"

_Grr, I know other songs too! _thought Fuu, more and more vexed_, Even pirate songs! Well, only one, to be honest… thanks to Jack Sparrow, b__ut… but that wasn't the problem…_

"I would have preferred to find something more… pirate-like… too…" muttered Fuu in a defeated pout, remembering with a sad giggle the face Zoro and some others had made at first hearing the song she wanted them to prepare, "But then the lyrics wouldn't have fitted…"

"Lyrics, hum…" smiled Clow amusingly, his eyes wandering on the 10 pirates enjoying themselves under the endless starry sky of Grand Line, still believing in their dreams even after all the adventures behind them and the ones awaiting them, "Yeah… lyrics were definitely a match…"

"Yes…" nodded Fuu with the same dreamy gaze for all her nakamas assembled here around Luffy and sailing towards tomorrow without regrets, "Lyrics of a song of love and friendship for the future King of Pirates!"


	29. Transition, Omake, Otaku

_What happens to a girl when she realises the one she thought she knew the best is acting strange?_

**

* * *

Original Happening Date: **May 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes: **Parody, Comedy  
**Number of Chapters: **SP **/ Words: **1000  
**Rating: **K  
**Credits:** All characters beside the two OC (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders across the world.  
**Guest Star:** Clow, alias Clowsama (.net/u/1552380/Clowsama)

* * *

**The Day Fuu doubted her own Brother**

**...**

**THOUSAND SUNNY, GIRL'S CABIN**

Fuu: *pausing a bit after the previous conversation* By the way, Clow…

Clow (inside his big communication mirror): *raising an eyebrow* Yeah?

Fuu: I think… you've been acting… strange... recently…

Clow: *raising his second eyebrow* Strange?

Fuu: Well, I mean… *breathes deeply* Okay, I'll say it straight: how come you're acting that way around Luffy and the others?

Clow: *clong, mouth wide open* W… what?

Fuu: I mean, how come you're not desperately trying to see them? To talk to them? To touch them? How come you don't use the pretext of me being on-board to come and visit and hang around with them? How come you speak to them with a perfectly cool tone?

Clow: *still a bit confused* Hum, that's…

Fuu: Are you really feeling okay? I don't understand you! They're your HEROES and you just speak to them as it if you didn't care at all! How come a huge otaku like you behave like that?

Clow: *crash, face collapsing under the shock* I… see…

Fuu: *sulking* What happened to my cute little brother who was running all over the house each time something was happening in One Piece?

Clow: *tilt* Since when am I your 'CUTE little brother'? We're only one year apart! And already GROWN UP, for God sake!

Fuu: *sulking even more* And where is the fanatic otaku crying of joy at each revelation while calling Oda-Sensei a genius, a god and everything? Give me back my real brother!

Clow: *tilt* That's ME, you big baka!

Fuu: *crossing her arms and still sulking* No way! My little brother is not some kind of arrogant author who just meet with his idols without at least squealing…

Clow: *snap* What the…? Squealing is for fangirls! Don't put me in the same basket as them, don't you dare to!

Fuu: *blinking of surprise* You're… not…?

Clow: *roar: Of course NOT!

Fuu: *deep sigh* Well, I still think it's weird not to see you acting all otaku around Luffy and the others… without showing anything special…

Clow: You know it's not the first time I met them, do you?

Fuu: Hum… Yeah, there was the moment when I regained my memories, on the Moby Dick… Now that I think about it, it was even stranger at the time: everyone was there, Luffy, the Mugiwaras, Marco, Ace and the WhiteBeard's Pirates, and you acted as if you felt nothing… NOTHING! You acted all cool and mighty, lecturing me and all…

Clow: *smirk* You needed a good lecture!

Fuu: *sulking* Well, I guess… But that doesn't explain your reaction…

Clow: It wasn't the first I was seeing them either…

Fuu: *surprised* Oh, true, they told me you had contacted them by mirror before, but even with that, they're your idols, come on, between seeing them across a screen and meeting them, you should have felt something!

Clow: *a bit embarrassed* You can't even imagine how it was hard to keep my cool!

Fuu: *arching an eyebrow* So you forced yourself to look cool?

Clow: *even more embarrassed* Of course… I can't show a stupid otaku expression to my heroes… Tsk, kakkowarui…

Fuu: *stunned* You wanted them to think you're cool while you're the one idolizing them?

Clow: *flushed* N… not really, but… It's just… try to understand…

Fuu: *dark glare* Try to understand that you felt more touched by seeing your heroes in flesh than by the fate of your sister who had loss nearly all her life energy because of the stupid Devil Fruit you gave her without prior warning?

Clow: *averting his eyes* Well, you DID want to teleport everyone out…

Fuu: *sighing* Well… Yes… *whisper full of guilt* Thank you for giving me another chance… *tilt* Hey wait, don't change the topic!

Clow: *sweat dropping* I didn't change it on purpose, and I can't really see where the problem is…

Fuu: *persistent* So you came to pick me up on the Moby Dick, right? So you met Luffy, Ace and WhiteBeard, right?

Clow: Yes I did… *seeing his sister's anticipating expression* But I didn't behave like a crazy otaku, I swear!

Fuu: *pouting* Liar!

Clow: *snap* I'm not lying! Like you said, there were more important things on my hands at that time! So didn't even need to force myself to keep my cool… *calming down* Though it was harder when I saw Luffy and the others when coming to see you in your cabin after the Buster Call…

Fuu: *suspicious* So you DID feel something?

Clow: *offended* Of course, baka! Even if I met them before when calling them and asking them to come and pick you up on the Moby Dick, to suddenly see the Mugiwaras in flesh, and all together after so long…

Fuu: *tilt* After so long?

Clow: *starting to get frantic* Two Arcs without them, can you even imagine the anguish of a true fan?

Fuu: *stunned* …

Clow: *more and more frantic* Two complete Arcs since Sabaody during which we only followed Luffy and not the others! Can you imagine how many chapters it means? No, of course you can't, you're not even aware of how long we need to wait between each of these fantastic pieces of manga art to get released…

Fuu: *world-weary* …

Clow: *completely frantic* One week! One week between each of these magnificent chapters! And these two long long Arcs during which we didn't see the rest of the Mugiwaras lasted from chapter 513 up until now… Can you imagine?

Fuu: *resigned* …

Clow: *fist trembling of contained happiness and relief* More than 60 chapters, more than one full year of patience and anguish, and they're finally back together… It was so… magic to see everyone united again, sob sob… *starting to get teary*

Fuu: *sweat drop* Okay, now my otaku brother is back…

DOOR OPENING WIDE

Luffy: *enthusiast* Fuu, a new Island, a new… *realizing, wide grin* Oh, Clow, what's up?

Clow: *turning his mirror towards him, immediate change of behaviour* Hi Luffy, I'm quite fine, thanks… A new Island you said, then I mustn't detain you too long: send my regards to everyone else… *bright and polite smile*

Fuu: *thought* I can't believe him! This stupid two-faced brother!


	30. Story V, Quest, Far West

_What happens when an author of fan-fictions puts his sister in charge of solving the fictional paradoxes caused by the rewriting of the History of One Piece?_

**

* * *

Original Happening Date: **May 2010**  
Universe: **Alternative Universe**  
Themes: **Adventure, Romance  
**Pairings: **LuNa, ZoRo (long), AceXOC (even longer, kind of)  
**Number of Chapters: **10 + 1 SP **/ Words: **80000 (estimation)  
**Rating: **T  
**Warnings: **Post a re-written Marine Ford Arc  
**Credits:** All characters beside the two OC (Outsider Characters) Fuu and Clow are the property of Eiichiro Oda and their respective copyrights holders across the world / All characters and songs from the crossover universe presented in this Arc are the property of Walt Disney / Lyrics of the song: "Cowboy Casanova" by Carrie Underwood, lyrics of "The World is not Enough" by Garbage, lyrics of "Cotton Eyed Joe" by Janne Ericsson.  
**Guest Star:** Clow, alias Clowsama (.net/u/1552380/Clowsama)

* * *

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

The Conquest of the West

…

**GRAND LINE, THOUSAND SUNNY**

"Land ho!" calmly called Robin from the lookout, before bringing back her eyes on her book.

"Wow! An island, a new island!" started to dance around Luffy and Chopper.

"A full continent, you mean…" specified Nami while looking at the wide land growing in size as they were nearing it, and which reminded her of Alabasta Kingdom.

It had now been more than a week since the Thousand Sunny was navigating on the tormented waters of the New World to reach their next destination – the one pointed out by the Log Pose attached to the wrist of their mikan-haired navigator.

And their two new crewmates – rather temporary crewmates – had found activities to occupy themselves on-board: Fuu had resumed her full-time post as an assistant –multiple assistant, even though the one really needing a bit of help were usually Chopper and Sanji, the latter having discovered that Ace was eating as much as Luffy, which was a serious threat for the food supplies – and Ace had mainly been helping Nami for navigation, as the experienced and good – if not excellent comparing to the rest of the Mugiwaras – navigator he was.

Along the way, they had met a couple of pirate ships – the majority of them having run away at realizing their Jolly Roger was the one of the crazy pirate captain who had messed up three of the World Government Institutions in less than a year – Marine patrols – who had tried to attack them after realising the same thing, but quite fruitlessly – and Sea Monsters – which had unfortunately for them ended up in Sanji's food supplies.

Tempests had been numerous but no serious damage had had to be reported, and despite the relative calmness of the travel, everyone was now gladly anticipating the prospect of reaching land.

"I want to go and eat at a restaurant…" was already salivating Luffy.

"I need some new medicinal herbs…" was mentally listing Chopper – a big part of his supplies having been used along the trip to cure the frostbites Usopp had had while playing with Fuu's gun, the burn-marks Luffy had had while he had been so bored he had asked Sanji and Fuu to teach him cooking, etc, etc…

"I can finally find a dealer to exchange all the jewels from the Ice Palace, heehee…" was grinning Nami with Berry-shaped eyes.

"Yare yare…" was smiling Robin at all these comments which weren't really out of the ordinary upon reaching a new island.

"Sanji," called Fuu while turning her head towards the blond cook, "Will you need some help to buy all the food supplies?"

"It's really nice to offer, Fuu-chan, but I can't let a lovely damsel step down to carry the bags…" answered Sanji while dragging on his cigarette with a very gentleman-like smile.

"Oh, I see…" sighed Fuu in a forced smile to hide her deception.

_So basically, I have nothing useful to do… unless accompanying Chopper and Robin to the apothecary, I guess… I wonder if it's really okay for me to be doing tourism on Grand Line, like that…? Clow is going to scold me once more, huh… What did he said last time, something like 'having a nice little cruise with the heroes'...? Grr…_

_I had offered to join him and hunt paradoxes with him, but he said I should stay with Luffy and the others, just in case the Feathers would be attracted by them in order to make the Story resume its course by itself… Hum, that might also a smart plan, but still… Hum… Hum…_

Meanwhile, Ace was putting on a sand-coloured shirt while thinking about the last conversation he had had with Marco by Den-Den Mushi.

_This part of the New World is under the protection of Kaidou… _thought he with a glance for the Jolly Roger floating at the entrance of the port, _Ever since Marine Ford, relationships between Oyaji and him have been really tense… We even own Akagami a lot for keeping him busy during the War, so I guess it would be better to keep low profile here…_

_It's quite tacit between Yonkous not to make a mess on someone else's protectorate but there's also the problem of the rest of the Fleet being far behind us for now… And causing trouble while being a guest in another pirate crew is definitely not the most courteous nor the smartest thing to do, tsk… Maybe I should just take it easy for once and enjoy my stay on-land, hum…_

"If you're feeling bored, Fuu…" began he with a smile springing up on his lips at imagining how he could enjoy his time, "… we can go and have a walk in town together."

"Hum… sure, if you want…" absent-mindedly answered Fuu before turning her head towards Robin and Chopper, "Is it okay if Ace is coming with us too?"

CRASH. Ace had collapsed on the deck, completely stunned by the slowness with which Fuu was reacting to each of his tentative to get closer to her.

"Yare yare…" softly laughed Robin at the sight.

"I think you should try a more direct approach, Ace-san, if you wish to make some progress…" whispered Brook at WhiteBeard's Second Commander's ear.

Ace slowly turned his head towards the bony face who had spoken to him, blinked a couple of times without being able to mutter an answer, and finally heaved a deep desperate sigh while thinking he had probably reached the bottom if a perverted skeleton-musician was now in position to give him advice on girls…

_How come she can be so self-conscious when I'm close to her physically but not be able to understand when it's a verbal hint? _thought he while gazing at the hazelnut-haired girl.

The Thousand Sunny finally lashed down in the harbour of the new city. Nami started distributing everyone's shopping money and gave the time at which they would need to be back to the ship, and the volunteers prepared to disembark.

"Fuu, if you leave the Sunny, you should take your gun with you…" commented Zoro while barely opening up an eye – the swordsman being already ready for his nap against the mast, as usual when he was staying on-board to guard the ship.

"Oh, it's true!" exclaimed Fuu while slapping her forehead with the flat of her hand, while everyone else was sighing at thinking it wasn't really useful to have made her a weapon if she wasn't taking it with her.

And Fuu swiftly turned back to run towards the girls' cabin where she had left the silver weapon in question.

But she stopped abruptly mid-way, and gradually turned her head back towards Zoro, her lips tighten in a doubtful and embarrassed expression.

"Zo… Zoro…" mumbled she, "How do you know… that I do not have the pistol with me…?"

TILT. Zoro's eyes had snapped back open, and the three pirates waiting for their nakama slowly turned some suspicious faces towards the swordsman.

Fuu was still looking at him with a shared expression, and Zoro finally moaned a ranting blushing sigh.

"Well, I… Hum… I just noticed…" grumbled he while inwardly searching for an excuse other than confessing he had seen no holster on the girl's right thigh when the sea breeze had lifted her dress and swept across her white petticoats previously in the morning.

Fuu blushed furiously at the answer, having no trouble imagining what Zoro had eluded, and bit her inferior lips before turning back and dashing towards the girls' cabin without a word, but with beat-red cheeks.

And her cheeks were still red when she reappeared a few minutes later on, clinging her skirt to her legs with her both hands while passing in front of the swordsman.

The rest of the group then quietly disembarked, leaving Zoro swallowing back his embarrassment and beginning his nap.

_Grr… This damned Shounen manga characters! In the end, this ship is filled with playboys and perverts: no one to make up for the other… _was thinking Fuu upon entering the new city with Robin, Chopper and Ace, _There's only Luffy and Chopper who are not depraved… though since Luffy is now dating Nami and that their relationship seems to progress normally, I must conclude that he isn't as innocent as he looks… Grr, give me back the gentlemen from my Shoujo mangas!_

And Fuu's inner rant came to a stop when they finally arrived downtown, trying to find words to describe the scenery in front of their eyes.

"It looks like Banaro Island…" screeched Ace with an annoyed expression at the remembrance of his fight against BlackBeard on the aforementioned island.

"Wow, so many people… and they all look so busy!" added Chopper while watching the carts and passer-bys cross the large main street – or rather the only street – at full speed, creating clouds of dry dust in their stake.

"It must be a mining region with this city as an anchoring point for prospectors…" commented Robin with a glance for the men crossing the street at horseback or by feet, their face covered in dirt and pickaxes on their shoulders.

_It definitely looks like one of these boomtowns which were popping up like mushrooms in the American Far West during the 19__th__ century… but I can't really say that, can I? _thought Fuu while watching the flat fronts of the wooden houses bordering the unique street, the pub with swing doors which was labeled 'Saloon', and the horse-riders wearing cowboy's hats and large leather belts showing off two to four revolvers.

Far away beyond the exit of the town was spreading the endless space of a rocky – dusty – desert until the eyes could catch glimpse of a range of bare mountains on the horizon.

_Looks like my new weapon is quite adapted to the local atmosphere! _inwardly laughed Fuu while trying not to attribute this coincidence to the irremediable Laws of Fiction-Telling which wanted that nothing would happen without reason, _Though Ace's hat and Zoro's dark glares could pretty much blend with the ambiance, Spaghetti-Western-movies speaking, heehee…_

But the time granted for admiring the scenery soon reached its end and Robin was the first one to come back to business.

"Isha-san, you said you needed medical supplies, didn't you?" asked the archaeologist while lowering her eyes towards the little reindeer who had transformed into his animal form to be more discreet, "The apothecary shop seems to be on this side."

"Yes…" nodded Chopper, "I need several herbs and lots of bandages…"

"Hum… I'm not sure we need three people to bring the bags back to the Sunny… The two of us should be enough…" pursued Robin with an insisting glance for Ace and Fuu and one of her usual little calculating smiles at thinking she was going to lend a friendly hand to WhiteBeard's Second Commander, "So meanwhile, Ace-san, Fuu, how about going to the pub and try and find out some information to see if there might be something interesting to do on this island before leaving?"

"Huh…? Oh, hum, sure…" accepted Fuu, a bit surprised that her nakamas would want to go different ways but glad to be able to do something useful for once.

And on this answer, Robin and Chopper left towards the apothecary shop, the archaeologist having granted Ace an encouraging glance to which he had answered a thankful smile.

"So, we should get going too!" exclaimed he with a joyful smile at grabbing Fuu's left hand in his to pull her behind him across the crowd.

"A… Ace…?" blushed a bit Fuu while fruitlessly trying to get her hand back, "Where… where are we going? What's the plan?"

"Hum…?" turned back Ace with a grin, "To the Saloon to collect information of course! The best way is just to wait discreetly in some corner and let people talk: we should be able to learn a lot…"

"I… I see…" answered Fuu while trying to make her cheeks cool down and still fighting back to get her hand out of Ace's grip… but in vain.

And with Ace still holding her hand, they crossed the High Street, swiftly – at least Ace and therefore Fuu following as well as she could – dodging horses and carts, before finally pushing open the two revolving parts of the Saloon's door.

The wooden panels creaked a bit, attracting the attention of a couple of clients.

And these clients' faces instantly crumbled at recognizing – or rather wishing to be mistaken at recognizing – the newcomers.

Ace felt some fearful stares coming their way, gradually more numerous as the cowboys present in the room were elbowing their neighbours to show them who had entered the pub. His hand tighten a bit around Fuu's and he imperceptibly stepped forward a bit, drawing her closer to him as they were slowly walking towards the bar desk. But it wasn't useful for him to do so, as all the distrusting stares in the room were directed towards him, and him only.

"Hey… isn't that Hiken no Ace?" began a murmur.

"Hum, it definitely looks like him…" pursued another whisper.

When they had finally reached the bar, at the other end of the room, every client had by now realised who the tall guy with an orange hat might be and the whole room was rustling with undertone gossips about Ace, and rather the badmouthing ones, based on the glimpses of conversation Fuu could catch.

The bartender himself was staring at them and more particularly at Ace as if to make him fully understand he wasn't welcome here, and Fuu could feel without any effort the condensed curiosity and suspicion emanating from the observers behind them.

_Seems like waiting in a corner while spying on conversations is not going to be possible… _thought she while raising her eyes towards the one on her left.

"We're taking a room…" said Ace in his calmest tone to the innkeeper before turning towards the stairs leading to the second floor.

_Eeehhhh? _blinked a couple of times Fuu while following – rather being dragged along by – Ace.

Downstairs, the innkeeper had even stopped wiping the glass he was cleaning due to the surprise provoked by such an announcement... And under the flabbergasted expressions of all the clients, the couple silently climbed up the stairs leading to the second floor and disappeared behind the door of the one of the rooms…

**

* * *

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR**

"Wh… Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?" cried with frustration Fuu, who had collapsed on the floor as soon as the door had closed, "Why did you take a room?"

"Hum?" tilted Ace, taken aback by the girl's reaction, "Well, to be able to spy on them while staying out of sight… We can do that from the corridor's balcony and…"

"How could you ask the innkeeper a room while it's barely early afternoon?" cried Fuu out of despair at remembering the comment she had heard the clients make when they were entering the room: _Young couples these days are so shameless…_

TILT. Ace seemed to suddenly understand the problem and he averted precipitately his eyes to try and hide a blush.

He then shot a glance at the girl with beat-red cheeks who was nearly crying on the floor because of the innuendo and massaged his neck with a troubled expression.

"I… well, I…" muttered he while kneeling down in front of her and trying to think about something to say, "It's just… you know… habits…"

_HABITS? _inwardly screamed Fuu while blushing even more furiously.

"You might be used to take rooms with girls in broad daylight…" began Fuu in an angry tone while nervously playing with the petticoats of her dress, "… but don't think everyone is like you, you damned playboy!"

SHIN. Ace blinked a couple of times at trying to integrate the last word in his mind.

_PLAYBOY? _inwardly exclaimed he, _Wait a minute, she really sees me like THAT? No, seriously? Just where could she have gotten that from? I mean, I can admit that I had only one night stands up until now, but honestly, for what I cared about it…!_

"W… wait…? So that's who you think I am?" asked Ace while inwardly considering that all the runaway and embarrassed reactions of Fuu might be explained by this reputation – not justified – of playboy she was crediting him with.

"Because you're not?" retorted Fuu with still a vexed expression, "An arrogant, provocative and overly confident playboy…?"

Ace took the shock in silence, strangely not really vexed but rather really curious. He stared deep into the angry amber eyes of his interlocutor and couldn't help but wish for answers.

"So, is that really what you think about me?" asked he with a very serious tone, while he was slowly bringing his face closer to Fuu's, his eyes pinned on hers.

"Hum… well, that is… you're also… hum… responsible, brave, polite…" tried Fuu, suddenly feeling guilty for having only listed him defaults the first time but not realising it wasn't for that reason that her interlocutor had insisted, "And, hum… you are… very strong, and… mature, and you… you smile a lot, too… hum, and you protect the people you care for… and… you… you…"

Fuu was feeling that she was starting to lose control over what she was saying under the influence of the obsidian eyes which were still staring deep into her own.

And Fuu started to imperceptibly move back, slowly, very slowly and still on the floor, as if hoping to escape the hypnotic spell which was paralyzing her.

_Waaaahhh… Why is he coming closer? Is he waiting for me to apologize? Is he just playing around once more? But… but his eyes seem to be expecting something… just what could he be waiting for?_ was thinking at full speed Fuu, her mind blanking out from times to others in the process.

_Hum… She really seems to be running away from me… _thought Ace with an amused yet disappointed glance for the girl with beat-red cheeks who was looking at him with obviously troubled eyes, _Does she really take me for a playboy? Tsk, I confess it's funny to tease her and it's also tru I grew addicted at her embarrassed reactions but… is she seriously considering I'm only PLAYING with her? She's not able to see the difference or something?_

_Well... I guess it's definitely like her, though... Now I'm really starting to wonder where she's coming from: such innocence is definitely not from this world! But more important, don't tell me she didn't take my kiss at Fimbul seriously because of that?_

And despite such disconcerting thoughts, Ace was chasing after Fuu just as slowly as she was pulling back from him, never leaving her amber eyes out of his sight.

And finally, the hazelnut-haired girl ended up back to the bed base, no way-out left.

"So, is it really all you think about me?" murmured Ace, his face now a mere centimetres away from Fuu's, his question making the girl blush furiously as she could feel his breath on her skin.

_WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!_

BONG. It was way more than what Fuu could withstand, and she had stood up precipitately, knocking involuntarily Ace in his chin with her knee in the process.

And still in a panicked state, she dashed towards the door and wanted to open it to leave the room, but a strong hand pinned on the wood prevented her from doing so.

"Hey, wait…" muttered Ace while massaging his chin, "We didn't learn anything special yet…"

_Grr… He's quite right… but… but… _thought Fuu while clenching her teeth to force herself to calm down and recover her cool.

_Since we managed to enter this Saloon in such an embarrassing way, let's try at least to learn something useful from the clients or the bar-tender... It was the very first time I was asked to do something meaningful when landing on a new island, so even if it's about collecting information, I can't go back empty-handed to the Sunny…_

"Sigh… So what did you say before? That we could use the fact we're the only ones using a room to spy on the conversations from the corridor's balcony…?" tried Fuu with a calmer and more composed tone.

"Yeah, that's the plan…" answered Ace with an amused smile at seeing that Fuu had recovered from her embarrassment and was now as calm as usual when glancing at the door.

_Interesting… _thought he at seeing the change of expression on the girl's face, _I'm starting to think that this playboy role she put me into is not as annoying as I had thought… Even if she runs away from me, she's not going really far away… and if I push her enough, she might even forget to run away, hum… I think I'm not going to get bored with her reacting like that, heehee…_

Then, having both aside their inner debates, Fuu and Ace softly half-opened the door of their bedroom and squatted down to discreetly listen to the conversations happening at the bar, right under them.

The clients of the Saloon had for long resumed their usual chatting, but the passing of the two pirates had of course brought a new topic to gossip about.

"Hey, landlord, d'you think they're pirates, this couple?"

"Hum… I've some doubts, now…"

"But the guy looks just like Hiken no Ace from the WhiteBeard's Fleet…"

"Haha… maybe but who cares? Right now, I'm sure these two must be having a really good time!"

"Yeah… Hey Landlord! Be careful that the vibrations won't damage your Saloon … Knowing how strong this guy is, I doubt he'll do her something soft…"

"Well, the girl should know what she's up to! So I'm sure she's just the type who won't be content with something soft, despite how she looks, yahahaha!"

CRASH. At hearing the comment of the cowboys, Fuu had become bright scarlet and had glided on the floor, completely annihilated with self-consciousness.

_No but what type of reputation will I end up having in this town? Ouinnnnnnnn! _thought she while instinctively tightening her grip on the door frame to gain some support.

"Fuu…" softly murmured Ace at her ear.

"Kyaaa…" startled Fuu while repressing a squeal, before briskly turning her flushed face towards Ace and whisper back: "Wh… what?"

"Sorry…" murmured he while averting his eyes to hide a blush caused by the same comments, "I didn't think about it when asking for the room… So sorry about that…"

Fuu looked at Ace's embarrassed expression and fought back a laugh at seeing him apparently ashamed to confess he hadn't thought about it beforehand.

"Well… it's done already, so it's fine…" murmured she with an amused smile while trying to meet with his eyes to comfort him.

And in front of such an expression, Ace smiled back, until the sound of the conversation resuming under them pulled back their focus on the room underneath.

"But it's true I wouldn't be surprised if other pirates fleets were coming here, at El Dorado…"

_This island… well, continent-island is called El Dorado? The same name as the ancient mythical City of Gold? Weird… Oda-Sensei is not the type to lack imagination when coming up with the name of the Islands in One Piece… well, at least according to my brother… Hum, maybe admiration makes him biased on the topic… Hum, El Dorado, so… something related to gold?_

"Yeah, it's true that with the mine, treasure hunters have come from everywhere…"

"But pirates are another story! They wouldn't just dig the mountains or sift the river, they would rob the other miners of their gold!"

_So we're really talking about gold? Great, that's a very precious information! And Nami is going to faint with happiness, I'm sure…_

"Gold, hum?" whispered Ace while crooking a smile, "Our money-loving navigator is definitely going to like this island! Hum… and that also means we won't be leaving soon… or at least, not empty-handed, heehee…"

And while Fuu was repressing a laugh at the same idea, the conversation under them was pursuing its course.

"It's already enough to have to pay for Kaidou's protection, we can't just let random pirates have it their way with our gold!"

"Don't worry too much! I'm sure the Sheriff will do something if robbers make a mess! After all, he's got a very powerful power too…"

"Tsk, if it's pirates like this couple from before, I'm not sure the Sheriff's power would be efficient… You all saw it: they're really shameless! Asking for a room during the day, and in front of everyone…!"

_…! _nearly choked on Fuu, _How… how embarrassing, sob sob...! Our reputation is definitely ruined, now... I hope we won't have to stay on-land for long or I'll definitely die of shame before the end! And… wait a second… what's the link between us being shameless or not and the Sheriff?_

"Humph… Even people like that have something embarrassing to hide in their heart… Just trust the Sheriff!"

"Tsk… I'll never trust anyone besides myself! I'll protect my gold alone, as always! And built my fortune with hard-work and efforts and never let myself be fooled. That's the oath I made on my Number One Dime!"

_Hey?_

Completely flabbergasted by the last sentence she had heard, Fuu slowly progressed towards the wooden balcony and looked though the bars of the balustrade that was running along the corridor bordering the bedrooms, just above the bar.

_No way… the one who said THAT…_

Fuu slowly lowered her eyes on the bar desk and nearly gasped of stupor at seeing an anthropomorphic duck sitting at it and conversing with the innkeeper… a duck only drinking a glass of water and helping himself in the pot of peanuts left for free consumption on the bar, without ordering anything else… a duck who had left his heavy dusty coat with a huge bag and pickaxe on the chair nearby… a duck wearing a patched up reddish frock coat, some sideburns already easy to distinguish on the side of his head…

_TELL ME I'M DAY-DREAMING…?_

**

* * *

MEANWHILE, IN FRONT OF THE EXCHANGE SHOP**

"Okay, Luffy! Have you understood what I just explained you?" asked Nami while turning her head towards her captain, a very serious expression on her face.

"Yeah!" nodded diligently Luffy.

"Are you sure you've perfectly understood your role?" confirmed Nami with a calculating expression.

"Yeah: I do like usual and let myself be swindled, right?" repeated Luffy while finally remembering what Nami had told him the five previous times she had tried to explain him how to behave in front of the shop-keeper.

"Correct! You wait for the dealer to announce a really cheap price based on your face, and then when I chime in telling you he's scamming you, then you become angry and scare the dealer out of his senses by playing it the bad-ass-pirate-not-happy-to-have-been-taken-for-a-fool…" grinned Nami while tightening her fist with a passionate expression, "And then, I come right after you and we're making the dealer pay a lot more for the treasures! No way he would complain after having frightened him that much, heehee…".

"Okay!" nodded Luffy while breathing in with determination.

"So we're entering!" announced Nami while pushing the entrance door while Luffy was following her with the heavy bag containing the numerous – and heavy – jewels and gems they had collected at the Ice Palace at Fimbul.

**

* * *

SALOON'S BEDROOM**

_Impossible… Why? Why him…? Why here…? Could it be that we're really in the Far West? So the paradoxes caused by my brother and me also brought characters like him in this universe?_

Fuu was still gazing with an incredulous expression at the duck with a Scottish accent who was speaking with the bar-tender.

"Hahaha! We should have guessed: you always prefer to make your own way, haha ha! Your Number One Dime, hum?"

"But keeping a weird little silver coin as a lucky charm, it's really an old wives' thing, wahahaha!"

"Tsk! My Number One Dime is not a lucky charm, I only believe in hard-work! You'll see I'm right when I'll become the richest man around!"

_Oh, so he's not the 'the richest duck in the world yet'? _thought Fuu while polling her memory to try and find back some data on the duck in question among all her childhood readings.

"Wahahaha… yeah, sure, the riche… Hey? And what's this strange nugget tied to your coin, you didn't have it last time...?"

_A strange nugget? A gold nugget? t_hought Fuu while putting aside the searches in her memories to focus back on the conversation and more especially on the small stone which was tied to the duck's 'Number One Dime', _Hum… Definitely weird, it's true: the nugget is really round-shaped and a bit translucent, so it resembles a prism or a golden crystal more than gold…_

"Oh, that? It's some stuff a Native gave me when I rid him of some cowboy who wanted to rob him… Strafing thieves with lead is always a pleasure, niark niark…"

"We could have guessed, hahaha… So why did you attach it to your all so precious Number One Dime?"

"Hum… The Native told me it's a really powerful talisman in his tribe and that it holds special powers, so you never know… And I like the name: it's called 'Gold Core'…"

TILT. Fuu nearly choked at hearing the tale of the duck and her thoughts starting racing across her head: thoughts where were mixing an Ice Core transforming into a Feather of light when she had laid her fingers on it, and thoughts about how such Feathers were needed to close spatio-temporal slits between fictional universes.

"Fuu… What is it?" asked Ace at seeing the blood had left Fuu's face and that she was lost in her thoughts.

TILT. Ace's voice brought Fuu's back on earth and she tried to cool down before thinking about what she could answer him.

"Ace… You know that my brother is travelling the Seas to find some items, aren't you?" asked she while keeping an eye on the duck still sitting at the bar desk.

"Well, it's not really hard to guess, but you never spoke about it…" answered Ace with a smiling sigh.

TILT. The tone in Ace's voice made Fuu turn her head towards him, momentarily forgetting about the duck under them.

_Ace? _thought she with a tingling guilty feeling in her chest at realizing she had apparently caused him to worry even though she had decided to keep the whole problem about the Feathers and the paradoxes to herself precisely to avoid such concern from her nakamas, _I... see... Then, s__hould I… should I tell him…? Tsk, how stupid of me, what could I tell him? Between the strange 'I'm from another world and need these Feathers to come back home' and the 'You're just characters from a Japanese manga and this duck is from an American comics so he's not supposed to be here', I'm quite sure the Spoilers-related safeguarding slashes won't let me be it open my lips…_

"Sorry…" muttered Fuu with a fading guilty smile, "I can't explain you the details, nor to you nor to anyone else… But I think one of the items my brother and I are looking for is owned by this duck, and…"

TILT. But when Fuu's eyes wandered back on the bar desk under them, she gasped with angriness at realizing the aforementioned duck had left the Saloon while they were chatting.

"The duck?" repeated Ace while raising a curious eyebrow, "You mean the talking duck who was speaking with the innkeeper a bit before?"

_Hum, now that I think about it, what the heck can this duck be? Is he an Awaken Zoan or something…? _thought Ace while frowning a bit at the remembrance of the anthropomorphic animal.

"So what about this duck?" asked Ace with a curious expression while slowly standing up and closing the door between them and the rest of the saloon to resume a conversation louder than some whispers.

"Hum… It's not really the duck himself, it's a gem he has..." pursued Fuu while pushing away her frustration of having lost sight of it, "I'm not completely sure though, so I need to ask my brother about it, and also ask to everyone else if I can stay behind on this island to ascertain if it's really the item we're looking for…"

TILT. At the mention of 'stay behind', Ace's face closed down a bit but he quickly recovered to answer with a smile.

"Well, I'm sure there shouldn't be any objections, especially from our gold-loving navigator!" joked he while imagining there would be no trouble to find some occupation to the whole crew on this island, be it for money-lovers, adventure-lovers or just easy-going members, "Sure, it also depends on the time the Log Pose need to record the next magnetic field, but I'm certain we can manage to catch your duck before that!"

Fuu blinked a couple of times, surprised to hear Ace say what sounded like an offer to help her in her quest - especially since she had never asked for it or even hoped for it, having rather tried not to bother anyone else with this Feathers Quest.

But surprise let place for a more thankful and touched feeling and she couldn't help smiling in the end.

"So, since your duck left and that we have some 'precious' information to bring back to everyone…" began Ace while swiftly averting his eyes from the smilinh face of his interlocutor to get rid of the urge he just had of crushing her in his embrace for having made such an expression, "… we can go back to the ship, I guess!"

"Sure… Let's go!" smiled Fuu while putting her hand on the door's handle.

"Oy, you don't think about leaving this room by the main door, I hope…? It's way too soon!" cut Ace with a mocking smile while catching her hand to stop her from opening the panel.

"Huh?" wondered Fuu, a bit puzzled by the comments and more especially the 'soon' part.

"I care about my reputation as a man, you know…" pursued Ace with an _irritating_ teasing grin.

_Since she really thinks I'm a playboy, I'm not going to disappoint her… _ thought he with a cunning and provocative smile, _And if I have to be stuck in this role for now, I'm going to make it worth it! It seems way too amusing to let it slip… and who knows, she might even react for the best…_

"So there's no way I could let a girl walk out of the bedroom after such a short amount of time, and still perfectly in shape…" finished he with a very insisting ambiguous look for his interlocutor.

At understanding Ace's innuendo, Fuu's face became instantly vivid red and she bit her lips to try and keep her focus.

She didn't retort anything, way too embarrassed to even precise her thoughts and finally shook her head from side to side to try and clear her mind, under the jested watch of Ace who was inwardly enjoying her reaction.

_Waaaaaaahhh! No but how can he say something like that? As if it was the most natural topic of conversation in the world? Tsk, this damned playboy!_

_And also, don't tell me it means we'll need to wait in this bedroom until a 'reasonable' amount of time has passed according to our 'supposed' activity? Wa… waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! That's way too embarrassing, no way! Definitely no way!_

_And Ace fis just too much! Even if he confessed not having thought about it when asking for the room, it seems he's finding the present situation really amusing, grr..._

A bit angry at seeing the mocking expression of her interlocutor, Fuu started to look at the surroundings of the room with eagerness.

_No way I'm going to stay here with him, alone, while pretending to have such 'occupation' with him! An exit, an exit, I really need an exit...! Ah! Great, the window!_

And while Ace was amusingly looking at her slap her own cheeks to try and evacuate the red which had flushed in her face during her silent and embarrassing reflections, Fuu swiftly turned away from him and the door, and headed towards the large window in the opposing wall.

"Phew… We should be able to leave thought here…" sighed Fuu with relief at seeing the sash window was easily opening.

_She's the one who said it was already done and that we couldn't do anything more about it, but she's still panicking to try and find a less embarrassing way to leave… No but really… _thought Ace while gazing at the face of the girl he had seen go through a whole range of blushing tones in less than an hour, _Being with her, it's easy and interesting at the same time… I guess I'll just never get tired of it, heehee…_

"Ace, let's go!" joyfully called over Fuu, the breeze entering the room though the liberating window – and exit to her present predicament – having made her recover her smile and cleared up her mind.

"Are you sure you don't prefer to wait a bit more…" joked around Ace in a very provoking tone.

"S… stop that!" sulked Fuu, deeply embarrassed at the hint, "And, hum… well… when we… when we'll finally be outside, can you… can you please… not… not talk about what happened here to everyone?"

SHIN. Ace looked at the sulking puppy eyes his interlocutor was making, and needed to bit his inferior lips in order not to answer such an expression by a move that would definitely earn him a punch on his head.

He fought back such impulse a few more seconds, staring deep into the amber eyes which were earnestly yet innocently supplicating him, and finally couldn't hold it anymore and averted his eyes.

"Sure…" sighed he in a low tone.

Fuu smiled happily at his answer and put both hands on the windowsill to step over it...

... but stopped abruptly mid-way.

"Ahh!" exclaimed she while making a swift U-turn, "Wait! We can't leave like that!"

And before Ace could ask her what she was talking about, Fuu had already went past through him and gone back near the bed, looking left and right with eagerness.

"Have we forgotten something?" asked he with a puzzled tone.

Ace's remark made Fuu stop her steps and turn towards him.

"Of course!" answered she as if she was talking about the most obvious thing in the world, "After our little scene with the innkeeper and everything we've said before, we can't just leave like that!"

Ace blinked a couple of time, not understanding at all what the problem could be.

"Come on…" sulked a bit Fuu, "When the innkeeper will find that we're taking too much time to go back downstairs, he'll probably come to this room. And when he'll enter the room, what do you think he'll think about us if we just leave it like that?"

Ace looked at Fuu, then at the room, then at Fuu's serious expression again, and finally the pieces of the puzzle seemed to assemble.

TILT. Ace's lips stretched in a teasing grin and he walked determinedly towards the big wooden bed.

A few seconds later, the blanket had been sent flying to the other end of the rooms, the sheets were all crumpled up, a pillow had joined the blanket on the floor while the other one was nearly eviscerated of its feathers on the bed, and one of the four bed-feet was half broken after having been hit by one of Ace's soft kicks.

"All right! Now, let's go!" declared WhiteBeard's Second Commander with a self-satisfied smile.

He then shot a glance at Fuu, who was looking at him with a bewildered expression, extremely confused about what he had just done.

"Wh… why did you messed up the bed?" she finally ended up asking him.

"Hum? But you just mentioned it…" answered he while crooking an half-serious half-teasing smile, " … that when the innkeeper will enter the room, he will think that after an embrace as torrid as what one of ours must be, it's strange that the bed would still be intact?"

The suggestive comment caused a monumental blush on Fuu's face that soon transformed into a little cloud of vapour above her head, and such reaction made Ace inwardly laugh a lot.

"OF COURSE NOT!" exclaimed she, embarrassed as it should be allowed to feel, and briskly averting her eyes from the setting of the messed-up bed to try and get the innuendo out of her mind in the process, "I was just thinking… just thinking that…"

"Hum…? Thinking about what?" asked Ace in a very provocative tone while walking closer to her.

"I was thinking…" mumbled Fuu while determinedly not looking at him.

"Hum…?" repeated Ace who was now close enough to the hazelnut-haired girl to see how trembling with embarrassment her eyes were.

"That he would take us for people who left without paying…" finished Fuu in a murmur, deeply ill-at-ease, "We said we'll take a room… so even if we didn't use it, we need to pay for it…"

SHIN. Ace had frozen, completely taken aback by the comment.

"That's all I was thinking about…" mumbled Fuu while barely daring to shot a glance at her interlocutor.

And in front of such a candid expression, Ace had to fight back the urge of busting into laughter.

_So that's what she was talking about? Ha ha ha… No way… _thought he while turning around to hide his chuckling, _Paying for the room… Haha… There's only her to care about that! Thinking about the bill is already not something a pirate would do, but thinking about it while the only thing you want is get away of somewhere is just… just… Hahaha! No but what kind of education and life had she had up until now…? It's just too amazing, haha ha!_

And when Ace finally recovered enough of his cool to face her, he had planned to tell her it wasn't in his principles to pay, be it for a restaurant or an inn, and that running away without caring about the bill was the better way to deal with such situations, but he stopped midway.

_Oh crap… Don't tell me she's making such a sheepish expression just because of a bill? She not going to make a scene for it, right?_

Ace gazed at Fuu's puppy eyes a few more seconds and started to sulk at realizing he probably wouldn't be able to resist her for long…

"So… so can we…" began Fuu before she suddenly felt her feet leaving the floor, "Kyaaa!"

_Just NO WAY! _thought Ace while forcing himself not to listen to the part of him that couldn't stand to see the hazelnut-haired girl's puppy eyes and would be ready to do anything for her, _I still have some principles!_

"W… wait…!" panicked Fuu at feeling Ace lifting her up and put her on his shoulder before swiftly walking towards the window and jumping over the windowsill.

**

* * *

MEANWHILE, IN FRONT OF THE EXCHANGE SHOP**

"Great! Now that it's finished, can we go and eat?" asked Luffy while exiting the dealer's shop, his hands resting behind his head in a happy-go-lucky fashion.

"Are you kidding?" exclaimed Nami, trembling with excitement and her eyes randomly taking the shape of Berrys, "We've got something way more important to do!"

"Aah?" wondered Luffy with his mouth wide open in a rictus of disbelief at thinking nothing could be more important than food.

"We need to go back to the ship, meet up with the others and make all the preparations!" declared Nami while clenching her fists with determination and anticipation, her eyes still in Berry-mode.

"Preparations for what?" asked Luffy with his most not-convinced face, "Don't tell me you want to go in this mine the Ossan inside told us about…?"

"Of course we're going!" affirmed Nami with enthusiasm, "Didn't you hear what he said? A gold mine! And we have the right to keep everything we find!"

"But we don't care to have the right or not: we're pirates!" reminded Luffy with a definitely not enthusiastic expression, "And we just received a lot of money, so we don't care, right?"

"Tut tut…" retorted Nami while moving her index from left to right in negation, "If we earn more money, that means we'll be able to enjoy more wonderful food in restaurants…"

TILT. Luffy's face brightened.

"… with a lot of meat…" added Nami with a – fake – detached tone but eyeing Luffy's expression.

TILT. He had begun to drool a bit.

"… and this mine is a really interesting place, so I'm sure a great adventure is awaiting us there!" finished she with a cunning glance for her adventure-loving captain.

TILT. Luffy's eyes were now in star-shape.

"WE'RE GOING!" exclaimed he while throwing his arms towards the sky, now really really enthusiastic.

_Bingo! _thought Nami while snapping her fingers in victory, perfectly knowing how to stimulate Luffy's interest for something.

"So, are we going to meet up with everyone?" asked Nami with a bright smile.

"Of course! No way we're going to miss such an interesting adventure!" answered Luffy in a laugh.

**

* * *

HALF AN HOUR LATER, EL DORADO HIGH STREET**

"Ah, found two of them!" exclaimed Nami while waving at the two people she had seen across the street.

"Oh, Nami!" smiled Fuu while waving back at her friend across the heavy dust clouds provoked by the intense circulation in the High Street, "We're coming, one sec…"

But Fuu's eyes bumped out of their sockets at realizing Ace wasn't standing next to her anymore and had already crossed the street, skillfully dodging horses, carts and cohorts of prospectors.

_Sigh… He could have waited for me… I'm just a normal human, you know… I don't have phenomenal reflexes like him or Luffy… And then again, there isn't pedestrian crossing here!_

_Oh well, I'll just wait for a pause in the heavy traffic and… Huh?_

Fuu's attention was suddenly attracted by the person standing next to her on the border of the street – and that could have qualified as a sidewalk.

It was an old-looking granny with silver hair and a blue outfit that reminded Fuu of a plain Chinese kimono. The old lady was apparently talking with the little cricket she had trapped inside a small wooden cage, but the surrounding noise made Fuu miss the essence of the talk.

But what made Fuu's heart skip a beat is when she finally saw the granny put one hand on her eyes to blind herself and prepare to step right in the circulation.

"Stop!" shouted Fuu with a panicked expression while grabbing the granny's kimono sleeve and forcefully dragged her backwards.

"Huh?" wondered the old lady while moving apart the fingers obstructing her eyesight to search for the person who had pulled her back.

"What do you think you're doing?" exclaimed Fuu with a disbelieving expression.

"I want to prove this cricket's luck…" simply answered the granny with a confident smile.

"W… wh… what?" mumbled Fuu while blinking several times.

"My grand-daughter is making her introduction today and I want to give her something to bring her luck!" happily declared the old lady while agitating the little wooden cage containing the blue cricket.

_Aah? Is she senile or something? I had always thought older people to be wiser but this one is definitely an exception! And… but wait a second, why do I have such a strong impression of deja-vu?_

But Fuu's thoughts were abruptly brought to a stop when she saw two masculine silhouettes approaching her.

"Oh, what a pretty miss!" spoke a voice stinking with whiskey.

Fuu softly let go of the granny's arm and slowly turned around to face the two cowboys with definitely not friendly expressions that were standing next to her.

_Oh my… They reek of alcohol and it seems like they're going to be annoying… So, what do they want with me?_

Meanwhile, the granny had resumed talking to the cricket about proving its worth.

"Feeling lonely, pretty babe?" asked the second cowboy while looking around to be sure Fuu was indeed alone.

"How about having some fun with us, then…" added the first cowboy with a perverted expression which made Fuu's eyes narrow and harden.

_I hate being right about this kind of thing… Grr, they'd better leave while I'm still calm or I'll definitely make them regret their attitude… Especially since Clow would not chew me for beating up FIGURANTS!_

And while Fuu was hoping for the cowboys' own sake to leave her alone, the old granny with the cricket had once more put her hand on her eyes and had resolutely walked to cross the High Street.

"So, what do you say, sweetie…? How about coming with us?" asked the second cowboy while beginning to turn around Fuu.

"Yeah, we could teach you a lot of nice things…" commented the first cowboy with an excited expression while coming closer to Fuu and raising his hand to move it towards her hips and thighs.

And everyone next moves happened really quickly…

First, as the first passer-by at horseback noticed the old lady walking straight across his path, he pulled on the reins to make his horse stop before it would hit the granny.

At the very same time, on the sidewalk, the first cowboy move had earned him a dark glare from Fuu, but most of all had made an orange-cowboy-hat-wearing guy across the street light up vivid flames in his hand, while his two neighbours were frowning at realising what was happening to their hazelnut-haired nakama.

Second, the horses and carts slammed on the breaks to desperately try and avoid hitting the old lady who was still walking right in the middle of chaos with her eyes blinded.

And on the other side of the High Street, Ace chocked down a cursing word when the huge cloud of dust made him lose sight of his target.

Third, after a tumult of crashing noises and neighs, the old lady's silhouette started to appear out of the smoke screen. And when she finally opened her eyes again and contemplated the chaos she had 'luckily' escaped, she started rejoicing over the fact that the cricket must definitely be a lucky charm... though the 'lucky' cricket itself had already fainted with fear...

Meanwhile, on the other sidewalk, one silhouette also became more precise: the one of a girl wearing a white dress and straightening her skirt as if to take off the dirt from it… The 'dirt' in question lying flat on the ground or kneeling down in pain nearby her.

CLONG. Ace, Luffy and Nami's jaws unhooked in a significant noise at seeing Fuu perfectly fine while her two aggressors were now in some pitiful shape.

"She… she beat them up?" exclaimed them out of pure disbelief while mentally trying to associate a violent action to their pacifist nakama.

"Wait a minute! She doesn't even know how to fight…" blinked a couple time Luffy.

"Well, this cowboy over there definitely seems to have been kicked in his Kintama, though…" commented Nami with a shared expression.

"Ouch…" instinctively sympathized Luffy while clenching his teeth, "So Ace, is it that you managed to teach her how to fight, in the end?"

"Hum… no…" mumbled Ace, a bit taken aback by the question.

"Well, Sanji-kun did say she knew some basics for kicking, so maybe she's learned in the past… but it's just she's never really wanted to hit someone before, I guess…" paused Nami with an amused look for the two perverts on the floor, "You don't know how hard it is on women to have to deal with perverts, tsk…"

"Ah, hum… If you say so…" mumbled Ace, more and more ill-at-ease at the idea that if Fuu had no problem hitting him it might be because she was putting him in the same basket as the other jerks, "But on the Moby Dick, she was usually using her power on them…"

_At least she never used her power against me… _sighed he while feeling a tiny bit comforted by the thought.

"Whaaaaaattt?" shouted Luffy while briskly turning his head towards his brother and accusingly pointing at him with a shocked and horrified expression, "You let her use her power while she was on the Moby Dick?"

"What the…? Of course we did, tsk…! And just to remind you, she was also using it with you when she was helping you to reunite with all your nakamas!" snapped Ace, more touched by the remark than he had wished he would be, "It wouldn't have been very discreet to forbid her to use it while everyone else was seeing her land on the deck with her wings!"

"Who cares about being discreet?" sulked Luffy in a grumbling rant.

"Bakayaro!" shouted Ace while scolding his little brother a bit more, "And here I had thought you understood why Fuu's power needed to stay a secret!"

"But everyone would understand!" grumbled Luffy on a lecturing tone.

"You can say that because your crew is small!" retorted Ace, still very angry but keeping to himself what he was thinking about the level of 'eeriness' of the aforementioned crew members, "But can you just try and imagine how difficult it is to kill rumours inside a whole Fleet? What if someone let something slip at a tavern when they're drunk or something like that?"

"Who cares about what the others say! Fuu is more important!" ranted Luffy while staring at his brother with an expression of pure annoyance.

"Grr! You think I'm not feeling the same way…?" thundered Ace while trying to make his fists stop trembling, his face flushed with anger and something else, "But it's not that simple!"

"I can't see where it's complicated!" fought back Luffy while crossing his arms in front of him.

And while the two brothers were still debating on the topic, Nami had abandoned them behind and had swiftly crossed the street – skillfully dodging the pile of carts, horses and horse-riders which had ended up in the big messy traffic accident caused by the granny – to go and meet with her nakama.

On the sidewalk, Fuu was seemingly lost in thoughts, not even realising the pressing looks of the passer-by for the remnants of the two perverts on the ground.

_Seems like even if I'm not up to the level of the heroes, I can take on figurants just like in the real world, huh… Girls in mangas should use more often a kick between the legs to get rid of a jerk: it might not be the most noble way of fighting, but it's probably the most efficient… and it's also the very first basics we are taught in self-defence…_

_Tsk, perverts are the most dangerous type of villains: taking over the world is definitely harmless in comparison of a rude guy thinking he can just grope you as he wants, grr…_

"Fuu!" called Nami upon arriving next to her, "We're going!"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I'm coming!" answered Fuu in a smile before following Nami to meet up with Ace and Luffy.

**

* * *

EL DORADO'S HARBOUR, THOUSAND SUNNY**

Everyone had come back to the ship on time – and without getting lost since Zoro had been on watch on-board – and Nami had immediately rounded up everyone to present them the next stop of their journey.

"A gold mine?" asked Usopp while blinking with disbelief.

"Open to everyone?" asked Franky while raising a dubious eyebrow.

"If the dealer himself told you about it, Nami-san, it should be some trustworthy information, but it is still surprising…" commented Brook while caressing his bony chin.

"True, it's rather strange for them to let treasure hunters keep everything they find…" conceded Ace with a doubtful expression, "But we also heard some similar information…"

"Well, it might be to avoid plundering and thieves while giving people the opportunity to search by themselves rather than rob the gold from others… And well, it might also be good for the business in town to have so many prospectors…" suggested Fuu with a forced smile, trying to explain the logical reason behind Gold Rushes without mentioning how she knew such a thing.

_I can't really tell them that this kind of 'freedom' of discovery just happened in the Far West because the newly-born American government had no choice, can I? The endless lands of United States couldn't be enforced by laws at that time, so in such lawless deserts and towns, the most reasonable choice was to tell people to keep what they find for themselves and hope they'll be satisfied with it… Besides, the government was mainly hoping to populate the area with such prospectors and the activities around it, so it was more out of necessity that such things were happening… But off its original context, of course it seems weird, sigh…_

"A huge mine! A great adventure!" was exclaiming Luffy, grinning widely and sharing his joy with an already full-of-anticipation Chopper.

"Everything you'd like, my Nami-swan!" was automatically agreeing Sanji while twirling around his goddess-navigator with heart-shaped eyes.

_Hum… Well… Not that an historical or socio-political explanation could be of interest for them, I guess… _inwardly sighed Fuu in front of such a show.

"In any case, considering the number of days the Log Pose needs to record the next magnetic wavelength, I suppose we have more than enough time to go and explore these mines…" calmly commented Robin.

"What about the duck and the item you need to find?" asked Ace in low voice to Fuu.

"He's probably digging the mountains in search of some gold too…" answered Fuu with a smile at thinking it was a happy coincidence for her.

_After all, this dear Uncle – who's not an uncle yet but well… – is probably already back to his prospection camp, and with as much motivation than Nami presently… So that means I can stay with everyone while keeping an eye on this dear duck and the Gold Core… _inwardly rejoiced Fuu, truely happy not to be have to go a different way than her nakamas – not that she was unable to, on the contrary since she was used to travel alone in the real world, but ever since she had arrived in this world, something had started to change, imperceptibly, and even if her mind wasn't grasping it yet, her heart was feeling true happiness at the thought of staying with them.

"So let's prepare everything: we're leaving for the mines!" announced Nami with a very enthusiastic grin.

"YOSH!" joined in everyone else with more or less of enthusiasm.

And everyone dispersed to go and get ready.

**

* * *

A FEW MINUTES LATER**

Barely ten minutes after everyone had gone to make their preparations, Fuu walked out of the girls' cabin with an annoyed expression.

She had dug one of Robin's spare cowgirl hats on her head to get _in the mood – _like had said Robin – and had put on her shoulder her bundle bag of beige linen containing some spare clothes, a flask of water and some basic exploration tools she had nicknamed her _MacGyver kit_.

But what was making her rant as she was meeting up with the others on the deck was the conversation she had just had with her brother – by communication mirror – respecting to the duck and his Number One Dime.

_Tsk… How come he only said 'I put you in charge of solving the paradox'? Just who does he think he is, grr… As if I didn't know it needed to be solved… As if he could just 'put me in charge' while he's taking some holidays… No but really! He's letting me sweat it here in the Far West while he's enjoying some leisure time in Egypt? Grr, this damned annoying brother of an author!_

_As if it was an easy task… Tsk, even if he confirmed the Gold Core was the key to this paradox, I can't really see how I'm going to get it back! Because since our dear duck attached it to his Number One Dime, I doubt it will be easy for me to steal it… and besides, stealing is bad, despite everything Nami is saying… Hum… Or knowing how stingy this duck is, maybe I could manage to buy the Gold Core from him…? Well, but first, let's try and find him at the mine!_

"Fuu… You're ready already?" asked Ace with a smile at seeing her come to meet him near the railing, before sulking a bit at seeing that the hazelnut-haired girl had preferred to borrow the white hat of the archaeologist rather than asking him to take one of his.

"You too…" smiled back Fuu at seeing the green and black bag with zebra patterns on the wooden floor next to Ace's legs.

"Yeah… And I'm starting to believe that every time I'm travelling with Luffy, this Baka-Otouto is either making me cross a desert or some snowy mountains…" joked he while remembering their meeting at Alabasta and their first adventure together at Fimbul.

"Well… That's just how it is, I guess…" laughed Fuu at thinking her own brother had far weirdest destinations in stock for her trips, when he wanted to send her somewhere – in One Piece world, for instance, "Oh, and what about the others, are they ready too?"

And Fuu's head tilted a bit on the side to see her nakamas which were patiently waiting behind Ace near the railing.

Zoro had changed for some beige sleeveless tee-shirt and had put on a brown vest on top of it. He was leaning on the railing, his forearm resting on his katanas' hilts and a huge bag on which was written 'Camping Equipment' was ready at his feet.

Robin had also changed for a long-sleeved camel-coloured fringed dress – really short dress from Fuu's point of view but she could only agree that her friend was looking gorgeous in it – and had put on her usual dark cowgirl hat. A red belt and some camel-coloured laced boots were completing her look. Her bag was also ready and waiting at her feet and she had taken out a book to read – 'Gold Prospection for Dummies' – while waiting for the others.

Brook – who wasn't really in need of anything, even in a desert – had also put on some brown and beige outfit to change a bit from his usual black suit, and had exchanged his top-hat for a softer and wider one. And he was now patiently waiting for the rest of the crew to be ready.

And it was precisely this _rest_ which was having some problems…

_Hum… Well, I can understand for Chopper who needs to prepare his backpack as a First Aid Kit, because trying to imagine all the sorts of trouble and assorted wounds this bunch of hard-headed fools can get into is complicated… And I can understand for Sanji who needs to prepare enough food supply for Luffy AND Ace – and the others even if we eat way less than them – and also the Pirate Bentos since Luffy is always hungry between meals…_

_Bu honestly… what are the others doing?_

Indeed, the others were running all around the ship for their preparations…

Nami had changed too, and was now wearing a black tank top under a sandy-orange shirt topped by a grey sleeveless vest, an assorted sandy-orange pair of shorts and high-heeled leather boots. But she wasn't ready yet because she had spent the rest of her time running from the top deck to the hold to find and prepare more and more bags and buckets destined to transport all the gold she was planning on finding.

Usopp was crossing the deck from left to right too, and each time his arms were filled with more weapons and gadgets that he thought would maybe help him in surviving the dangerous journey in the desert.

Luffy was bugging Sanji in the kitchen, stealing some piece of meat the cook was putting in the Pirate Bentos as soon as the blond chef was looking the other way... and the cook was regularly kicking him out but the meat-thief was coming back to commit subsequent offences.

And Franky was currently not in sight but the rumbling metallic noises coming from under the deck were making everyone already ready wonder what could be his preparations, and more especially what type of equipment he was planning on taking with him to prospect in the mine.

_Wow… really… One-Piece-like, this bustle… _thought Fuu with a drop of sweat appearing on her temple at realising it didn't look rather different than in the manga.

"Hum… well, do you think we should go and help them?" finally proposed Fuu while turning her head towards the ready part of the crew.

"If we want to reach the mines before sunset, I think we should, indeed…" calmly stated Robin with one of her usual faint smiles.

"Tsk… This bunch of idiots…" grumbled Zoro while unfolding his arms to go and walk towards Usopp.

Ace had already opened the kitchen door to take care of Luffy, and Robin had nonchalantly made her duplicated hands appear near Nami to relieve her of her already-collected empty bags, and that without closing her book.

_Okay, then I'm going to help Chopper… _decided Fuu while running towards the infirmary.

And after one hour of more commotion, everyone was finally ready to leave and had disembarked.

The food supplies and equipment had been shared between everyone – even if Sanji had refused to let the ladies lift too heavy luggage – and Franky had switched on his safety device – one of his most recent updates on the Thousand Sunny and which had been designed to act as an alarm in order to protect the ship from thieves and other pest while no one was on-board.

Fuu had not dared to ask the blue-haired cyborg the fate awaiting a trespasser but Luffy, Chopper and Usopp were staring at the newly-protected Sunny with marvelling expressions and star-shaped eyes.

And everyone finally headed towards the town.

**

* * *

EL DORADO, EAST BORDER OF THE TOWN, RANCH**

"Heehee… I negotiated us some mounts!" joyfully exclaimed Nami while pointing with her thumb at the horses in her back.

_This poor rancher seems to have lost ten years of his life during the negotiation… _inwardly laughed Fuu at seeing the defeated expression of the cowboy which was going to be their guide to the mine.

"So let's go!" declared Nami with eager enthusiasm, her eyes in Berry-shape, "The gold is waiting for us!"

_She's getting carried away… definitely… _thought all the others while sweat-dropping.

But if Nami was really motivated to go to the mine, her mount seemed equally motivated not to let a stranger have it their way without a fight…

And everyone could therefore admire the mikan-haired navigator struggle with her horse for a good amount of time.

"Humph, this one, she wasn't able to wheedle it like she did for that stupid camel in Alabasta, heehee…" laughed Zoro at the sight, his arms crossed on his chest in a confident pose, before cautiously eyeing the rest of the mounts.

And Nami wasn't the only one having trouble with her horse:

"Gyaaa!" was screaming out of panic Usopp, tears of fear pouring down from his eyes while his horse was rearing to no end to try and throw its rider off.

Luffy was doing a bit better, since despite all the rodeo efforts of his mount to throw him off, he had used his elastic arms to circle twice the neck of the horse and stay easily in place.

On his side, Sanji had tried to be a knight in shining armour for his beloved ladies – that is, more than usual – but once he had finally manage to tame his own horse, he had had the disappointed surprise to see that Robin was already patiently waiting on her horse after having find a mount as calm as her, and that Nami's horse was now disciplined.

Franky and Brook had had lots of trouble too because the blue-haired cyborg had tried to dope their horses with some cola to make them more 'suuper-performance'-oriented, so both mounts had started to run away from them. But they had finally managed to sit on them – cross-legged for Brook since his legs were nearly touching ground.

"Sure, let's do that!" had smiled Ace when Chopper had asked if they could mount the same horse, since his plush-toy form didn't really deserve a horse only for him.

And since the little reindeer had already befriended one of the horses, Ace had had no trouble guiding it.

Also, joining the ranks of the ones who had had nearly no trouble taming their animal was Fuu: ever since she had seen the horses, glitters have appeared in her eyes and she had started grinning like an overjoyed child. And while everyone else had been busy with their own mounts, she had just got on hers with a swift and light jump, her feet instinctively finding the stirrups while she was happily patting the horse's neck.

_Wow… Hihihi… How long has it been since I last horse-ridded? It's such a pleasure to be able to do it again! And this horse seems swift and fast too! I wonder if it's a real mustang from the American Far West…? Hihihi! I'm so happy we disembarked on this island! Horse-riding is always such a pleasure, and…_

_Huh...?_

"Zoro… Are you not getting on?" asked Fuu while everyone else was too busy taming their own horses to notice the swordsman who still had both feet on the ground.

"No… I'll follow by feet, it's fine…" grumbled Zoro, his arms crossed in front of him in a shared expression.

Fuu graciously arched an eyebrow, quite surprised by the answer, and moved closer to Zoro with a small yet precise movement of the reins to bend over towards the swordsman and speak to him.

But at feeling the horse walk nearer, Zoro instantly stepped aside and averted his eyes.

Fuu's eyes widened a bit and she made her horse move towards him again: one step of the horse for her, minus one step for the swordsman.

Three steps for the horse, minus three for Zoro…

Fuu couldn't help but blink in disbelief at the sight.

"Zoro… Could it be that… you don't like horse-riding?" asked she in a surprised tone, "Didn't you already ride some of those, in Alabasta or somewhere else?"

"They were DUCKS!" pointed out Zoro without even looking in Fuu's – and her mount – direction.

"Then… can it be that the horse is the problem?" asked Fuu, a bit perplexed by his reaction.

"Wh… I… tsk!" mumbled Zoro while feeling his cheeks getting flushed a bit.

_Bingo! But why Zoro…? I mean, he's rather the type to scare his mount rather than getting all intimidated by it, so… Hum, I don't understand…_

Fuu looked at Zoro's sulking expression for a few seconds and finally decided it would be better not to ask further.

She then shot a glance around them: no one else seemed to have noticed the swordsman's hesitation – or rather his deliberate escape.

_Well, even if I don't understand…_

"Zoro, do you want to ride with me?" offered Fuu with an encouraging smile.

"Wh…?" nearly choked Zoro with a deeply embarrassed expression, "I'd rather die!"

"Well, I don't really know about dying…" began Fuu on the detached yet manipulative tone she was using on her little cousins when the children didn't want to do a chore, "… but if Sanji realizes that horses are your weak-point, he'll…"

SNAP. Fuu didn't even had time enough to finish her sentence: huge veins have appeared on Zoro's forehead and he had caught the saddle of Fuu's horse with both hands to pull himself up on the mount right behind the hazelnut-haired girl.

And while Fuu was patting once more the horse's neck to comfort it from the violent and heavy second passenger it had gained, Zoro crossed his arms back on his chest with a sulking expression.

"Tsk… It's fine, now?" ranted he while averting his eyes and clenching his teeth.

"Yes… probably…" giggled Fuu with an amused look for the person behind her, "But you should hold yourself too…"

_No way, hihihi… He really reacted like my little cousins! No but it's really too funny! How come he doesn't want to recognize he has some weak-points like everybody…? Well, let's try not to laugh… After all, I've been horse-riding since I was a child, but I'm definitely weaker than him for everything else so let's not act too mightily, hihihi…_

And while trying to hide her laughter, Fuu stretched her hand holding the reins on the right to go and meet up with the rest of her nakamas who had – apparently – finally tamed their own horses.

"Fuu…" called out a masculine voice on her left.

"Yes?" asked she in a smile while turning her head towards the person who had called her.

But she froze at seeing the frosty stare of her interlocutor.

Ace had approached on his horse – Chopper still in front of him – and was glaring at Zoro's hands which were put on Fuu's waist to keep his balance on their common mount.

"What's the big deal?" asked WhiteBeard's Second Commander with a dark tone, "Roronoa, you're afraid of horses or something like that? And you just freeloaded on someone else's mount?"

TILT. A vein had bumped on Zoro's temple and the swordsman's eyes narrowed, but he didn't unseal his lips to answer his interlocutor.

"Ah, hum… It's not like that, Ace…" retorted Fuu at feeling that Zoro had winced just behind her, and it wasn't hard to guess his pride had taken an heavy blow at the remark, "It's… it was I who asked Zoro to mount with me!"

_Oh my… Considering Zoro's ego, I'd better come up with an excuse… It was my idea after all… Let's see… an excuse, a pretext… Anything…_

"I… hum… I was a bit scared of mounting alone, it's true…" lied Fuu while averting her eyes and scratching her cheek to try and give herself some composure, "So I asked Zoro if he could ride the horse with me… and, hum, well… well…"

Wanting to prove the impact of her tale, Fuu slowly raised her eyes towards her interlocutor and froze once more at seeing that Ace's eyes had turned as dark and hard as steel and that he had clenched his fists around the reins of his own horse.

_Ace?_

"Oh... I see…" said he in a tone of outwardly calm but leaking with contained anger and disappointment, "And you couldn't have asked me, instead?"

DOKI. At this remark, Fuu's face crumbled.

_Ugh…! I… I… wh… why…? Why do I feel like I've done something bad? Wh… why is it that I feel bad for having let Zoro ride with me, suddenly? I… I… ugh…!_

And Fuu felt blood leaving her face under Ace's stare, guilt slowly eating her inside and preventing her from mumbling be it the beginning of an answer.

Ace stare at her with unwavering eyes for long seconds, clenched his teeth and finally made his horse make a U-turn to walk away from Fuu and Zoro and go and meet up with the others.

_W… WAIT! No, I… Wait, Ace, I… I… Ugh! Why is it that I feel the need to justify myself? It's just… But it's just I don't want him to turn his back like that… I…_

_Grr… That's only riding on the same horse, it's normal for nakamas, why does he seem so angry? And he also has Chopper ridding with him so what's the matter? And also… why is it that I feel so panicked…? I don't get it… it's… it's just…_

Powerless and troubled, Fuu glanced at Ace walking away from them.

After a few seconds of silence, she finally resigned herself at making her own mount walk towards the rest of the group and tried to ignore the distress calls from her heart.

Behind her, Zoro had found it appropriate not to speak, but it didn't mean he was agreeing with the present scene.

And far in front of them, Robin had met up with Ace and Chopper in a trot.

"I think you should rather trust your first impression respecting to the two riders behind us." murmured the archaeologist to Ace, having herself perfectly seen Fuu skilfully mount her horse before asking the swordsman if he wanted to ride with her.

"I know!" cut Ace, still really annoyed, "I know she did that to help him: I saw it too!"

SHIN. Robin paused and looked at him with a perplexed expression.

She then quickly glanced backwards and immediately noticed the depressed air of her hazelnut-haired nakama although she had been grinning like a happy-go-lucky fool several minutes before. And such a change of heart had obviously been caused by the scene with a certain WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

She thus stared at Ace with a wondering expression.

"Tsk… It's just…" began Ace, his face red with anger against himself at realising the stupidity of his reasons as he was exposing them, "She lied to me… to protect HIM! She lied and made herself appear as someone weak… to spare HIS pride… to spare HIM…"

And Ace's face crumbled a bit at feeling some strong bitter after-taste in his mouth for having let out his anger on Fuu as he had just done.

Robin looked at him without answering anything, her expression a mixture of amusement and moralistic disapprobation, and heaved a short sigh. She would have never imagined for the young man usually so serious – and patient – to act that petty, even if he was apparently regretting it.

_Yare yare… It seems like the saying about how jealousy is proportional to love might verify itself, in the end… _thought the archaeologist in a faint smile.

But she didn't add anything more and decided to let Ace face his pride to determine by himself what was more important for him.

"You know…" suddenly cut the soft voice of Chopper, who had kept quiet from the beginning, "I think that Fuu is someone nice because she helps her nakamas even if it's going to bring her trouble… And I think it's great to care more about the people important to you than about yourself…"

Chopper glanced back and made a long face at seeing that their hazelnut-haired nakama was still looking depressed far behind them.

"So if you're making her sad because of that… if you hurt her because of that, I'll never ever forgive you!" hammered Chopper while staring right into Ace's eyes.

SHIN. Ace and Robin just looked in silence at the plushy-yet-so-serious face of their little doctor, who was still staring at WhiteBeard's Second Commander with threatening – or supposedly threatening – eyes.

And while Robin couldn't help laughing up in her sleeve at the scene of their younger nakama lecturing the 'big-brother' one, Ace could only look at Chopper with a deluded smile…

"Hey, don't make fun of the reindeer!" ranted Chopper at seeing Ace look at him with an eerie smile.

"Sorry Chopper… it was about something different…" managed to articulate Ace who had actually been laughing at himself for having acted as a fool before and not having the guts to recognize it, although a small reindeer could so easily point out what was the most important, "And yeah, you're right: I'll probably never ever forgive myself either…"

And with a conniving smile for the little doctor, Ace made their mount make a swift U-turn and set off at a gallop towards Fuu and Zoro's horse.

In a laughing smile, Robin watched as sadness gradually left Fuu's face: in less than a minute, the hazelnut-haired girl had gone through surprise, blush, irritation, another blush, a sulking mood, and finally a laugh while trying to calm down Zoro who had him became really upset at what had probably been some joke or teasing comments from Ace.

"Yare yare…" sighed Robin at such a show.

And on this note of reconciliation, the crossing of the desert until the gold mine began, punctuated by the shouts of an already-hungry Luffy, the long stories of Usopp about the origins of the shape of some candelabra-cactus, the hyper-enthusiastic cheering of Nami in Berry-mode, and the unavoidable fights between Zoro and Sanji, especially after that the blond cook had realised that the swordsman was riding on the same horse as his beloved hazelnut-haired damsel.


	31. Story V, Quest, Gold Mines

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

For a few gold nuggets more

…

**EL DORADO, GOLD MINES**

"WE'RE THERE!" exclaimed Luffy while joyfully throwing his hands towards the sky.

The little group of pirates had indeed reached the mines, after several hours of travelling across the immense plain of dusty rocks of El Dorado. The calm of the desert had let place to the effervescence of the mines, the cactus to labyrinth-like galleries, and the scorpions and vultures to cohorts of hyper-active miners.

"The mines!" rejoiced Nami while joining both hands in an ecstatic expression, her eyes already in Berry-mode.

_She's getting carried away… most definitely…_ thought all the others while sweat-dropping at seeing their navigator staring avidly at the mine carts which were circulating on the rails leaving the galleries, searching amidst the tons of rock the golden glow of gold.

On her horse, another person was similarly enthusiastic, but not for the same reason.

_The mines! I'm sure my dear Duck must be here digging in one of these galleries! I need to find a way to find him… well, and also find a way to negotiate with him to get this Gold Core… _thought Fuu while searching around her to ascertain if her 'money-loving Uncle' was in sight, but with disappointing results.

And what finally attracted the pirates' attention was the gathering of miners and passer-by in front of what was designed as the 'Register Office' by a wonky wooden board.

They got off their horses and fetched their luggage before giving back the reins to their guide – who Nami had just paid for the ride, still trying to get a small discount even on the negotiated price. And while the cow-boy while turning hooves to go back to his ranch – promising himself never to begin negotiate with a mikan-haired girl ever again in his life – the group of pirates slowly approached the Register Office to see what was causing the commotion.

"Gotcha? You'd betta cooperate!" was sneering a huge blond cow-boy wearing a black and white leather vest on his broad shoulders, pinned on which one could see the glitter of a golden star labelled 'Sheriff', "I'm gonna make you confess, y'know…"

The Mugiwaras, Fuu and Ace gazed at the scene with dumbfounded expression: the Sheriff was towering over another cow-boy/miner who was on his knees on the floor.

_What's that…? _wondered Fuu while narrowing her eyes to look at the shadow of the Sheriff, which was spreading was more than what a natural shadow would, _It looks like… a spider web…? made of shadow…? What the…?_

"What's happening?" asked Nami to one of the bystanders.

"This guy stole the gold of another miner and tried to register it under his name!" explained the cow-boy questioned, answering with pleasure to such a pretty girl, "The Sheriff realized it and is now using his power to make him confess."

"Confess? With his power?" repeated Zoro while raising a suspicious eyebrow.

But the first cow-boy ignored the remark and glared at Zoro and the rest of the group, inwardly cursing that the pretty girl wasn't alone.

"Yes, the Sheriff has the power of a Devil Fruit!" answered another bystander who had heard the question and seemed eager to answer it, "But he's using it for preserving justice!"

Some in the group twitched at the mention of 'Justice', the concept not necessarily having been applied for the best in their case in the past, but nobody commented on it.

"A Devil Fruit, hum…" paused Sanji with a glance for the Sheriff who was still dominating the other cow-boy but without apparently doing anything, "What kind?"

"Well, we don't really know how it works, but the Sheriff has the power to force the truth out of criminals!" answered the miner, quite enthusiastic about his explanation, "His Devil Fruit is called the Kaa Kaa no Mi, from what we were told… And what you're seeing right now, these small shadowy threads under the thief, in town we nicknamed it the "Shame Spider Web". People who got trapped in it said that when you fall into this net, it's like you're being forced to remember all the things you would have prefer to forget: shameful things that made you want to disappear, regretful things that made you hate yourself, weaknesses you had tried to hide deep in your heart… Basically, you're getting paralyzed by dwelling in these feelings coming from your memories!"

"Humph… It's a bit like the power of that ghost girl from Thriller Bark but it's useless against someone like me!" boasted Usopp with a proud air before stopping his already-planned monologue on the bravery-of-the-great-Usopp-sama-against-the-ghosts at seeing the darker-than-black glare Zoro had sent him, having himself a couple more memories about such ghosts and about Perona, and not necessarily agreeable ones.

_Hum… I'm really starting to think I should have read this Thriller Bark Arc, but based on what Usopp had been telling us during his epic story-telling moments and what my brother had confirmed, it's true the power of this Sheriff resembles Perona's demoralizing hollows… Some sort of psychological attack… _thought Fuu while considering the thief on his knees on the floor, _Someone will really have to explain me why the huge classic of I-paralyze-my-enemies-by-making-them-have-nightmares-and-dwell-on-their-fears-and-tragic-past also have an equivalent in Devil Fruit? Well, I have to admit it's pretty original to see that here it's not a villain having such power, but still…_

"But if it's only about making them remember, how can he force the thief to confess?" asked Robin, really curious about the Sheriff's power.

"Ah, with his 'Bang Bang, Confess'!" eagerly answered the miner, his eyes filled with admiration.

SHIN. The whole group of pirates sweat-dropped at the name of the attack which was strongly resembling the name a 4-year-old could have invented.

"It's the Mayor's Son who came up with it, the first time the Sheriff used this technique in the town tribunal to make a bandit confess… and we got used to it, hahaha…" specified another miner in an amused smile at seeing the group of strangers react that way at the mention of the technique's name, "Don't get fooled by its name, that's quite a fearful power the Sheriff's 'Bullet of Truth'!"

"A bullet of… truth?" repeated Usopp, quite curious about this ability which sounded like a shooting technique.

BANG. And as if the Sheriff had decided to make a demonstration of the power in question, a pistol detonation suddenly resounded.

_He shot the thief down? _panicked Fuu while making a swift U-turn to struggle against the other bystanders to go to the front and see for herself what had happened, her insides twisting at the thought of such a cruel execution.

But Fuu – as well as the Mugiwaras and Ace – saw with more of less relief – depending on the level of compassion of the person concerned – that the cow-boy suspected of robbery was still alive.

The Sheriff had his two first fingers positioned like a gun and had apparently fire a bullet made out of his Devil Fruit power straight at the suspect, who was now glowing with a soft black aura.

"It looks like my 'Higan'…" remarked Ace, while raising a curious eyebrow, "But it doesn't look like it's inflicting damages…"

"Who's the owna of the gold y'put on the table?"asked the Sheriff with a monochord voice, igniting his power by his question.

"Me… and that old miner over there…" unemotionally answered the cow-boy stuck in the black aura of the Kaa Kaa no Mi.

"D'you steal that gold to that otha miner?" pursued the Sheriff, his eyes narrowing on the suspect.

"Yeah." calmly answered the cow-boy, as if not controlling his lips anymore.

CLONG. The jaws of a good part of the Mugiwaras had unhooked in a significant noise in front of the scene: the Sheriff was seemingly not doing anything, yet the culprit was confessing.

"W… wait a second! That's the power of the Sheriff?" asked Nami while pointing at the two cow-boys, "He made him confess just like that?"

"Yeah." answered the miner who had answered Nami's question the first time, glad to get to speak again with the beautiful girl again, "When you're hit by his 'Bang Bang, Confess', you're obliged to answer the truth when someone ask you a question… quite a terrific power, hahaha! But since the Sheriff only uses it on criminals, everyone at El Dorado respects him a lot."

_Oups… I agree… rather terrifying! I'd better not come too close from this Sheriff. After all, I'm wanted too, know, and I would prefer to avoid having to answer the truth to any question I could be asked… and on that one, Clow would be on my side… _inwardly sighed Fuu, a drop of apprehensive sweat appearing on her temple at the thought of all the things she would be better off not been asked to reveal.

Meanwhile, the confession of the culprit had solved the situation and ended the show, and all the miners were dispersing to resume their occupation, leaving the Sheriff put on handcuffs on the thief and taking him away.

But upon passing in front of the little group of pirates, the Sheriff shot a glance to them, and more particularly Luffy, Zoro and Ace, as if measuring them up.

SHIN. A short silence fell upon the place under the inquisitive stare of the Sheriff and the wind blew some tumble-weeds across the small distance which was separating him from the pirates.

The Sheriff finally averted his eyes without a word and walked away, taking the thief with him.

"Tsk…" screeched Zoro, his arms crossed while shooting a distrustful glance at the huge blond cow-boy which was now mounting his horse.

_Huh…? _wondered Fuu at seeing the swordsman reaction, wondering if it was due to his reflexes of former bounty hunter or to the fact he was still wary of horses.

She gazed at the Sheriff who was now leaving the mines at a gallop towards the far-away city, the culprit 'delicately' thrown in front of the rider, head towards the floor and his hands tied in his back .

_Oh my… Must be awfully uncomfortable… _thought Fuu while repressing a laugh at imagining the face the thief would be making when finally reaching El Dorado prison, hesitating on the shade of green such a trip would give him, _Probably more effective to discourage a thief to steal again than letting him get mouldy inside his cell, hihihi…_

"Hum…" chimed in Ace's voice who had walked towards her and watched her gazing at the Sheriff with a smile, "So your type of man, it's a huge husky guy with bushy yellow hair and a thick slang accent?"

"Wh…? Oh, stop it!" ranted Fuu in a defensive reflex, "Of course not, my type of man is not like that!"

"Ooh? So I had been right all along to think it was the centaur…" teased Ace with one of his usual crooked smile.

"Grr… What's the problem, bringing that up again? Who do you think I am?" retorted Fuu, deeply vexed and puffing her cheeks in a sulking expression, "Of course I prefer humans, tsk… Though if it's to have someone as brainless and lacking of tact as this Sheriff is, humans are probably not the best choice either…"

"So on top of being strong and being respected by everyone for fighting for justice, you would like a man with other qualities?" mocked Ace while provoking further his interlocutor, "You're really difficult…"

SNAP. The last comment had made Fuu lose it, vexed and hurt to receive such a remark again – the topic of her ideal type of man having always been a sensible topic back in her world – and by Ace moreover.

"Of course!" ranted she while trying to keep her cool despite all the irritating memories of debates with her friends or family popping up in her mind, "Just what do you think? That anyone would do? That a girl would be ready to follow anyone without at least judging first the person in front of her? Grr…"

"Ooh… And what do you judge him on? Why would you not consider the Sheriff as a man for you?" pushed further Ace with a clearly provocative smile.

"Grr… Why is it that I should justify my choice?" snapped Fuu, more and more angry by the conversation, "I can't really do anything if I prefer men different from him… besides 'justice' is a notion I'm not particularly fond of, even I do appreciate men who care about the people around them… And what if physically I prefer dark-haired guys…? What if I prefer men who smile rather than ones who stare at you with scary expressions like this Sheriff…? You want to know what's my dream guy? He should be serious, and faithful but independent at the same time… he should be strong and taller than me, sure, but not a husky brute like this Sheriff… he should care about others and be close to them without suffocating them… And I prefer men with who I can speak, and travel, and debate, and maybe fight when needed because I hate it when nothing happens in a couple… and I… I just… like…"

But Fuu's train of thoughts slowly came to a stop as she was realizing that all the elements of her description were unfortunately matching a bit too well the person who was standing just in front of her.

_I like… _gulped she down with difficulty while gazing at the obsidian eyes which were staring right at her.

"Hum… I see…" smiled Ace with one of his most arrogant teasing smile which instantly made Fuu blush of three shades.

_Grr… _cursed she while biting her inferior lips with shame, _I got carried away… I just answered his provocations and told him all of that without thinking… Habits are bad, definitely irremediably bad… How could I forget he's not just the usual friends I'm debating with…? He's not even a GIRL friend, how come I can just speak of my ideal type of man with him like that, grr…? I'm an irremediable idiot! The worst idiot ever!_

"HEY! Fuu, Ace!" shouted Nami from the desk of the Register Office, "We received an identification number: we can begin to mine this mountain!"

_Nami… excellent timing! _sighed Fuu with relief while rushing towards her friend with Berry-shaped eyes, abandoning behind her Ace and their embarrassing conversation.

And the eleven pirates – lead by an extremely enthusiastic Nami – entered the galleries in quest of a free location to begin their gold extraction, hoping to be able to find tons of them before sunset, which would be bringing a mandatory curfew for the miners.

**

* * *

EL DORADO, MINES GALLERIES**

"Wait a second…" roared Zoro, a shovel and bucket in each hand and a vein dangerously throbbing on his temple, "Why should I dig this rock for gold while you're just ordering us around? You're not planning on making us do all the hard work, do you?"

"Did you say something, Zoro?" asked Nami with a frosty smile, "Probably that you were happy to be able to earn the gold that will be used to pay back your debt, right?"

"Grr…" roared Zoro with rage at the mention of his debt which was endlessly inflating.

The last live embers of opposition thus suffocated, Nami began very enthusiastically to distribute the tools to all the guys.

"_**Mine, boys, mine ev'ry mountain,  
And dig, boys, dig 'til ya drop,  
Grab a pick, boys,  
Quick, boys,  
Shove in a shovel,  
Uncover those lovely  
Pebbles that sparkle and shine,  
It's gold and it's mine, mine, mine" **_began to sing Nami with Berry-shaped eyes.

_Just where did Nami found inspiration for this song…? _wondered Fuu with a flabbergasted expression, _It's really not her style to start singing just like that, and on top of that that song is reminding me of something… though I wish I'd remember what this something is, hum…_

**

* * *

A FEW MINUTES LATER**

_Wow… Amazing… _inwardly conceded Fuu while watching at the Mugiwaras.

Indeed, under the energetic lead of Nami, the rest of the group had by now found their rhythm of extraction, digging into the portion of gallery they had found in some far-away gallery of the mine.

And Fuu could now admire with amazement all the eerie techniques which were making the Mugiwaras so… special… and their present predicament so comical.

First of all, Franky had created a full system of rock crushing in less time than it should be humanly possible.

_Just where did Franky found all the supplies for such a thing?_

Ahead of the huge strange machine were working Usopp and Chopper, using a powder they had both mixed up to make the surface of the rock explode in order to supply Franky's device with stone to crush.

_I don't know if I should feel frightened or impressed that they manage to detonate the gallery wall enough to extract the stone but not enough to make the gallery collapse on us all…_

Downstream, Luffy and Sanji were carrying the buckets filled with crushed stone to bring it to Nami, who was sitting at a small wooden table – also built in a fraction of second by Franky – to examine them carefully, searching across her jeweller's magnifying glass traces of gold veins, before throwing in her back the stones devoid of the precious metal.

_Wow… Her rhythm is hellish… How is she doing to analyse all these pebbles in a mere seconds?_

In Nami's back, at the end of the process, were standing Zoro and Brook, in charge of getting rid of the useless stones. Sometimes, the rock didn't even have time to hit ground before one of the two swordsmen was reducing it in dust under multiple speed-light slashes.

_So impressive… I had never seen Brook's swordsmanship before, and I guess he's not only a perverted skeleton musician…_

BAM. One of the stones Nami had thrown over her shoulder hit Zoro on the head and he started to rant over, while Nami was coolly retorting back that he wasn't in position to negotiate.

_Hihihi… Zoro is usually calm and composed… probably one of the calmest among the guys, but sometimes, when he's with the others, I guess he just loses his cool like anyone else, hihihi…_

On the side, the three people that Nami hadn't requisitioned – be it voluntarily, by being seduced into it or by being threatened – were calmly passing time, sitting on huge bench-like stones near the opposite gallery wall.

Robin had re-opened her book 'Gold Prospection for Dummies' and was calmly going through its pages.

Ace had first planned on taking a nap, not feeling concerned by the prospect of digging into the rock to find gold for their money-loving navigator, but he had soon changed his mind at seeing that Fuu was joyfully cheering everyone up and encouraging the workers when they were making their preparations. He had silently endured the sight of seeing her cheerfully commenting everyone's hard work and had finally stood up to go and pat on Franky's shoulder to ask him for a pick and tell him where to dig, to everyone's surprise. It had of course interrupted a bit the flaw of the work, Luffy starting to find it more interesting to use a pick than to carry buckets, and the two brothers had fought over the tools for a couple of minutes before launching a huge challenge of the one who will manage to mine more than the other and to start their competition at full brotherly-rivalry-power.

Fuu had laughed a lot, finding it priceless for the two siblings to make a competition out of everything, but was now starting to consider that since nobody needed her – Sanji having forbid her to let her _beautiful _hands get dirty by such a hard work – she might be better off leaving the camp in quest of her dear Duck and his associated paradox.

_Hum… It would be better not to bother anyone and interrupt their assembly-line-looking work__ once more…_

And Fuu finally stood up and dusted the fabric of her dress before grabbing her bag.

"Are you planning on going somewhere?" asked Robin with a quick glance for her nakama.

"Hum." nodded Fuu while softly putting her bag on her shoulder, "There is someone I need to find, and it's important…"

"Are you going… alone?" asked Robin with the same neutral tone.

"Huh? Hum… well, yes, of course…" mumbled Fuu, completely taken aback by the question, "Everyone is busy looking for the gold, so I can't bother them to come and look for someone in these galleries with me…"

Robin's lips spread in one of her usual amused smiles, and she shot a quick glance to the actively-working silhouette of WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

"Bother, hum…? Well, I suppose it's not the dangerous kind of walk, after all. See you later, then…" wished Robin while resuming her book.

"I'll come back before curfew, so it shouldn't be an inconvenience for dinner or night preparations…" specified Fuu while calmly walking away, "See you later…"

**

* * *

SEVERAL HOURS LATER**

_Grr… This damned stingy duck! Just when someone is looking for him, he has to be so paranoid and work alone on some secret spot of his so that no one would come and steal his gold! Every miner I questioned told me he was the solitary type of person, not sharing any information with anybody, not even spending his gold at the saloon on evening… Tsk, I know all of that! I read all of that when I was little, about the Klondike, about Australia, about his nephew and the nephews of his nephew… But now, I understand way better why this damned duck had so many enemy in the comics, he's so damn irritating!_

_On the other hand, all the other miners were so polite and diligent, it's really nice to see people paying attention to your questions and so eager to help you! Well, but the only thing I don't understand is the eerie smile they all had… a bit perverted I think, but it might only be an impression… I mean, why would they stare at me that way? I admit there might not be a lot of girls among the miners present in these galleries, but still…_

But what Fuu couldn't know about the miners' eerie smile while answering her questions was due to her own reputation which had run ahead of herself and reached the mines before her, warning everyone that the Son of Gold Roger was in town with his lover, a girl with a white dress and hazelnut curly hair who didn't look like it but had some serious references for her in bed.

And all the miners – quite diverted by the gossip but still caring more about their life than about verifying if such rumors were true or not by inviting her to have some good time with them – had therefore behaved to their utmost good at seeing her coming to talk to them while mentally imagining what such an innocent-looking girl might hide behind the fold of her white dress.

_And there's something else bothering me a lot… Among the miners, I've met some Seven Dwarves which are obviously not at their place in this universe… I thought Nami's song was reminding me of something a bit earlier, but now I know for sure that it's also due to the same paradox… And the senile granny from this morning must also be part of the same fandom…_

_The problem is that when I touched the dwarf, nothing happened! They didn't turn into a Feather or even disappeared… And the Chinese Granny of this morning neither… So it seems the whole key to this paradox is the Gold Core: if it's the same as at Fimbul, I won't be able to solve anything until I can find it…_

_Tsk… A Walt Disney paradox is probably not the most dangerous or annoying paradox one could find, so I can think myself lucky I guess, but it's still really weird to see its characters walking around as if it was normal… Even if they're harmless, it's a very numerous fandom, Walt Disney… And it's also definitely utterly WEIRD! Too weird… definitely not at their place… I think I'm beginning to understand why Clow takes it as a personal offense when he sees weird cross-overs between One Piece and other fandoms…_

And lost in her own thoughts, Fuu finally came in sight of the Mugiwaras' gallery portion.

_Well, if I can't find this damned Uncle – who is not an uncle yet, but well… – in the mines, maybe I can try in the city when we'll go back to bring the gold to the exchange deal… HEY?_

Fuu's thought came at a stop when not recognizing the portion of the mountain they had set camp into. The central gallery had by now widened by tens of metres of diameter under the shovelling work of Franky's machine, and that long tortuous 100m tunnel was now connecting this cavern to the outside – the two hyper-active black-haired siblings having had no choice than to stop their picking contest upon reaching emptiness.

But despite their digging efficiency, the bags having been labelled 'Gold' in anticipation by Nami were seemingly as empty as they had been when Fuu had left…

Ace was now taking a nap on the floor of the cavern, hands behind his head and his hat dug deep on his eyes, his lips tightened in a sulking expression due to the fact that he had realised upon finishing his course with Luffy that Fuu had since for long left, and therefore had not witnessed his impressive physical performance.

Robin was still calmly reading her book on the stone bench, while the rest of the Mugiwaras were keeping on their excavation while humming a cheerful song.

"_**Just whistle while you work,  
Put on that grin and start right in to whistle loud and long,  
Just hum a merry tune,  
Just do your best and take a rest and sing yourself a song…"**_

_Oh my… Another out of place song… _thought Fuu while sweat-dropping at the sight, _Maybe I should have brought back these dwarves to sing along them, sigh… I really need to find this Gold Core and solve this paradox before it contaminates more of the One Piece world!_

Fuu gazed at the emptier-than-empty treasure bags and heaved a deep sigh.

"Robin…?" called she with a somewhat puzzled expression, "They still haven't found anything, isn't it?"

"Nothing." philosophically reported Robin without raising her eyes from her book, "They've been digging in this very same wall since you left, and of course didn't find anything…"

"But… then why didn't you tell them?" mumbled Fuu, taken aback by the answer.

"About what?" calmly asked Robin.

"Well, hum… what you just said… it's… well, you probably noticed too… It must be explained in your book…" began Fuu, a bit embarrassed to be obliged to specify her question, "If they keep on digging in this kind of rock, even after a year, Nami won't see a single gold vein…"

"Indeed…" commented Robin with a soft smile while patting the book softly, "But have you ever tried to have a sensible geological discussion with Kokaishi-san when she has Berrys in place of eyes?"

"No… Quite true…" mumbled Fuu while looking with circumspection to her mikan-haired friend which now rather resembled a terrifying dictator rather than a smart and composed navigator.

"People usually clear their mind during night-time so we should be able to offer Kokaishi-san a different strategy tomorrow morning…" announced Robin with a calmer than calm tone, before focusing back on her book.

_Tomorrow morning, huh… _thought Fuu while eyeing with discomfort the galleries around her, _Can't escape spending the night in the mines, I guess…_

And while inwardly cursing the fact that she now had nothing more to help and keep her mind busy – her dear Duck being impossible to find – Fuu slowly sat down on the bench-like stone and brought back her legs onto her to patiently wait for time to fly by.

**

* * *

AN HOUR LATER**

At sunset – even if no one could realize the sun had set, except that it was starting to get colder – an administrator of the mines came passing through all galleries while ringing a huge bell. The chime reverberated in the labyrinth of galleries and announced the end of excavations for the day.

Willy-nilly, the Mugiwaras stopped their digging – Nami's frustration losing to the threat of having a percentage of her future gold confiscated for breaking the curfew rule – and everyone assembled to set up the bonfire.

"Ah…" blanked Zoro when opening the bag with camping furniture.

"What is it?" asked Fuu while kneeling down near the swordsman to help him set up the tent and the rest.

But Fuu blanked out too at seeing the content of the bag.

"Ah…" said she in a disappointed sigh.

"What 's the problem?" asked Usopp while coming near them.

"Well… the tent is missing…" muttered Fuu with a troubled expression.

"What?" shouted Usopp, attracting everyone else's attention.

"What?" snapped Nami, her face as scary as it could be, the frustration of not having found gold yet piling up with this last piece of bad news, "What do you mean, the tent is missing?"

"It's true… It's not in the bag…" checked Chopper while rummaging in the huge bag.

"If it's the tent you're looking for, I've been repairing and modifying it two days ago…" remarked Franky while scratching his chin, "Maybe I forgot to put it back in the bag…"

"WHAT?" snapped the rest of the group, more or less on the nerves depending on who was concerned.

"Ah, hum… But… but the blankets are still there…" tried to temper Fuu, feeling a bit uneasy about the uproar and wondering if she should discreetly make appear a tent in the bag with one of her 'spells' before abandoning the option at realising she would get easily caught.

Sanji was now ranting with Zoro over the fact that he was a 'damned stupid seaweed head without any brain' and that he 'should have checked the content of the bag before taking it' and Zoro was snapping and insulting him back, feet and swords starting to tremble with the urge of fighting each other.

"Nami…" calmly called Fuu with a weary sigh, "It's not that bad if the tent is missing, isn't it?"

"That's because you've never had to sleep near the guys around a bonfire before!" ranted Nami with a vein bumping on her forehead at the remembrance, "They manage to jump all around the place even in their sleep and hit you in the middle of the night…"

_I see… _sighed Fuu with a weary drop of sweat appearing on her temple.

And it wasn't long before the dinner was ready, Sanji always taking cooking utensils in his own bag with the food supplies, and Ace having readily lightened up a warm fire in the central space of the gallery.

After Fuu and Chopper had panicked about the utmost dangerousness of lighting up a fire inside a cavern for a whole night and tried to explain everyone how an intoxication to carbon monoxide would definitely not be the best way to end their adventures in the mine, Fuu had finally been allowed to use one of her 'spells' to create a thin bubble around the fire.

"Amazing!" exclaimed Nami while touching the thin membrane, "Almost like the coating Rayleigh had made for the Sunny to let us cross Fishman Island!"

_A… coating…? _Thought Fuu, completely puzzled by this piece of information since she had never seen the substance in question, be it when reading One Piece at home or after having arrived in this world.

"And like that, the warmth will still be diffused but not the gas!" explained with a satisfied expression Chopper who had been supervising the whole process.

"You'll still have to explain me why you made the wood and flames float inside it, though…" commented Franky while scratching his cheek, "It wasn't suuper useful, right?"

"Sorry Franky…" apologized Fuu with a small blush at realizing how unnecessary it had been to do so, instead of letting the fire on the ground, "Levitating spells are still the things I master best…"

"Anyway…" interrupted Sanji while taking off the pan from the fire, the bubble instantly reforming itself as it was taken out, "Just quiet down and I'll serve dinner soon!"

And indeed, half-an-hour later, he had finished to cook enough food to feed the walking stomachs of the group, making Fuu wonder how he had managed to finish so many dishes and in such quantities in such a small amount of time.

"My goddesses, here is your dinner!" announced Sanji with twirling heart-shaped eyes, "And Nami-swan, please do not worry over the mistake of this stupid Marimo and enjoy this meal with high-recovering properties! I put all my heart in it!"

_Recovering? _snapped the other guys around the bonfire, _She made us sweat for half-a-day while staying seated the whole time and he's only caring about her?_

But they all pushed away the disagreeable report that the cook was only preoccupied by the girls of the group and helped themselves to the food he had prepared.

And what made everyone jumped with shocked expression was that the second bag Zoro had taken with him upon leaving the Sunny was filled with bottles of alcohol – something he had NOT forgotten to check before leaving the ship.

The little fight over Zoro's priorities order lasted almost an hour, and after some point, everyone was singing around with their glass filled alcohol.

Kampais and bursts of laughter chimed in for a good – or rather only – two hours, before everyone collapsed on the floor and started snoring, exhausted by all the digging.

"Hum… Impressive…" inwardly laughed Fuu – who had managed to escape alcohol in her glass – while quietly moving between the crouched body of her sleeping nakamas to delicately open out blankets on them.

Robin had by now closed her book and laid down too, but at a safe distance from the hyper-active group, and Nami was sleeping in Luffy's arm, close to the warm bonfire.

Draughts of icy wind were beginning to engulf into the mine galleries through the opening Luffy and Ace had involuntarily caused during their digging contest, and Fuu shivered a bit while looking around her, the dark rocks and the cold stone seeming to try and swallow up the light of the small fire.

"Fuu, you can go to sleep too." quietly called Ace's voice in her back, "I'll be on guard duty first, until our forgetful swordsman wakes up."

"It's fine, I can take the first turn." announced Fuu in low voice while turning towards him, "I don't feel like sleeping now so you can go instead."

TILT. Ace's eyes widened a bit at the declaration, and surprise soon left place to a faint teasing laugh.

"Because you seriously think I could sleep soundly while you would be mounting guard?" grinned he while shooting a glance at the hazelnut-haired girl.

_Hey… That's mean! _thought Fuu while inwardly sulking at the comment, _Especially coming from someone who's suddenly falling asleep in the most SOUNDLY way, any time he's turning narcoleptic, grr…_

"Don't take me so lightly!" retorted she while puffing her cheeks in a sulking expression, "I've got a weapon now, and in case of emergency, I can use one of my 'spells' to protect all of you! So you shouldn't be worried, I'll do my job perfectly!"

But her answer only made Ace's smile grow wider as he was silently laughing at the fact that it wouldn't be THEIR fate that would worry him to the point of depriving him of sleep but rather the one of the guard.

But as he was looking at the stubborn expression of his interlocutor, gazing at how flushed with vexation her cheeks were, he couldn't help but want and provoke her further.

"Then how about staying up with me to show me how good a guard you are!" offered he with a challenging grin.

_Grr, but that removes all the benefits of mounting guard IN TURN that! Grr…_

Fuu didn't move at first, staring back at her interlocutor and mentally weighting what were her options.

The cold nigh breeze flew by and agitated the bubble cover of the bonfire…

And Fuu finally heaved a deep sigh at seeing that Ace was giving her one of his usual provoking smiles: the same _annoying _grin as the one on the smiley of his hat.

And under the flabbergasted reaction of Ace – who had definitely not expected her to yield to him, but rather fight back with all her usual stubbornness – Fuu slowly walked towards the long flat stone Ace was using as a bench and sat down near him.

"I… I was kidding…" mumbled Ace, a bit – a lot – taken aback by her reaction.

Fuu didn't answer and simply brought back her legs on her chest while gazing absent-mindedly at the fire floating in front of them.

"Fuu, you can go and sleep, really…" insisted Ace, completely disconcerted.

"It's fine…" softly answered Fuu, "Being here doing something useful is way better than lying on the floor without being able to sleep for the whole night…"

"Why is that…? Hangover already?" half teased Ace while perfectly knowing that his interlocutor was usually never drinking alcohol.

"Would be nice…" smiled Fuu while considering that having your head ringing out like a bell might be a good option to avoid letting your thoughts dwell on things making you feel uneasy.

TILT. The out-of-place remark made Ace instantly recover his seriousness: seeing Fuu avoid a fight with him and then even joke around about wanting to have a hangover was definitely weird.

"Fuu…" asked he in a serious tone while frowning a bit, "Why is it that you won't be able to sleep for the whole night?"

TILT. This time, it was Fuu's eyes which narrowed at hearing the remark, and her hands tightened a bit on the fabric on her dress.

"Well, I…" began she while carefully choosing her words, "It's a bit confined here…"

_Confined…? _though Ace, a bit perplexed while looking at the ceiling which was still high enough to allow Brook to stand under it, and the excavation had widened the gallery into an half-circle-like cavern – the tunnel picked by Luffy and him not counting since it was rather long than wide._ Why would she think it's confined?_

And Ace looked earnestly at Fuu, as if asking her to explain herself.

"I…" mumbled she while glancing around with a weary and defeated expression, "I'm just not doing great with confined places…"

SHIN. Ace froze, and in his minds suddenly came rushing some images of Fuu from these past hours.

_She stayed silent, sitting back to the wall of the gallery with her knees huddled up onto her chest, just like she is now… _thought Ace while detailing her cautiously_, Her breath is short and meticulously timed, too meticulously timed to be natural… it's like she's controlling it, forcing herself to breath regularly… And now that I think about it, she barely ate dinner…_

"Fuu…" finally spoke Ace, trying to repress the irritated feeling rising in his voice, "Are you… claustrophobic?"

TILT. Fuu's eyes widened, and she blushed a bit before averting her eyes from her interlocutor.

"Yes…" confessed she in a barely audible voice, her arms still around her legs as if to hold herself together and cradle herself.

"Why didn't you said so?" snapped Ace while standing up in rage, stupefied and cursing himself for not having realised it before.

A few grumbles came from the nearby sleepers, and Fuu gave Ace a harsh stare for having shouted like that. WhiteBeard's Second Commander clenched his fists and forced himself to chill out, sitting back on the stone bench with a deep irritated sigh.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner…?" repeated Ace in a calmer voice but still in a reproachful tone, "We could have…"

"I hope you're kidding right now too…" interrupted Fuu with a tone mixed of determination and weariness, "To let something as stupid as that deprive them of their treasure-hunting adventure? I'd rather die…"

Ace clenched his teeth a bit more and tried not to bust into another rant.

"Tsk…" finally grumbled he while trying to keep composure, "Treasure-hunting maybe… But it's going to take days or weeks before they can find a single vein of gold in this mountain… Are you seriously planning on staying like that for so long?"

_She must be kidding me… _inwardly roared Ace while staring at the bonfire without really seeing it, _Even without telling Luffy and the others, we could go back to town together… Wait for them there… Or even search for this duck and this item she needs to find… No wait, that won't do, she said the duck was a miner too, so he's probably somewhere in these mines, tsk…_

"I should be fine…" answered Fuu in a way too vague tone as far as Ace was concerned.

_Should be fine…?_ _Who is she trying to delude? She's obviously NOT fine! _sighed he while shooting a glance at his hazelnut-haired interlocutor, _If she's admitting her weakness like that, it's quite obvious that she must be feeling tremendously bad… this baka never wanting to recognize she can be weak, like anyone… Tsk, why is it that she's always waiting for it to reach a critical point before speaking about it?_

"Besides, it's been several years now that I have been trying to control my claustrophobia crisis, so…" pursued Fuu while forcing a confident and disciplined smile on her lips, "So you shouldn't concern yourself with it, I'll manage on my own…"

SNAP. The last sentence had aggravated Ace to no point, and Fuu could only startle in wonder at feeling his immediate reaction to her statement.

_Huh…? _thought she, flabbergasted, at feeling herself being pulled onto Ace, strongly but tenderly.

"Who ever said you had to bear with it on your own?" declared he with an angry tone, his arm passed around Fuu's shoulders to hold her close to him, "For something like that… at least for things like that you should rely a bit on me!"

Fuu's eyes widened at the declaration, honestly surprised and puzzled by it but, for the first time ever, she did not fight back Ace's catch. She just gazed at the bonfire, her face a mixture of surprise and consent, sadness and gratefulness.

Ace was also staring at the flames dancing in front of them while mentally cursing himself for not having found anything better to do for her than that, but still without wanting to let go.

Long seconds flew by, and Ace felt surprised at gradually feeling Fuu's respiration calming down. He surprised himself at watching out for the little signs that were telling him that her breathing was resuming a normal pace. The intervals between two of her breaths on his skin, the slow motion of her chest making her dress ruffle onto his own body, the upheaval of her bust he could sense right under his left arm… everything was telling him that she was relaxing little by little.

Not even daring to move by fear of breaking the spell, Ace slowly turned his eyes towards Fuu's face, and felt something tingle in his chest at seeing that Fuu's expression had softened, and that her eyes were slowly closing down.

Long and silent minutes chimed out, only troubled by the sizzle of the flames and the crackle of the fire-wood, and Fuu felt her eyelids irremediably falling, her body thus claiming some rest after having been put through frayed nerves for a major part of the day.

And she finally abandoned herself to sleep, her mind strangely allowing herself to lower her defence and letting her take some rest despite the oppressing environment she was in.

Her knees slowly left her arms, distancing themselves from her huddled up position, and relaxed gradually on the floor. Her head fell gradually on the side but soon found some support and cuddled onto it.

Her breathing slowed down as she was finally falling asleep, abandoning her fear in the warm and comforting arms of the one who had hold her onto him.

"Baka…" murmured Ace in a breath while softly taking off his arm from around her shoulders to delicately place the blanket – the one he had kept nearby for his guard duty – around her.

_Tsk… Why must she take it onto her for just anything? _thought Ace while gazing at the expression of the hazelnut-haired girl sleeping on his shoulder, _She's got the right of being tired, from times to others…! She's got the right to be afraid or show some weakness, sometimes…! Baka, it's so not cute to pretend to be strong all the time!_

While still keeping his movements to the minimum by fear of waking up the sleeper, he resumed his watch duty, both hands joined in front of him and his eyes wandering on the flames of the bonfire eerily floating in a bubble at half-a-metre from the ground.

Fuu's breathing was slowly counting down time, and Ace could now feel the skin of his chest shiver each time she was exhaling, as if each of his nerve endings had agreed to multiply the sensation and increase his trouble.

_Damn it… _ thought he while ordering himself not to let his thoughts wander from the straight and narrow.

"Time for the shift!" suddenly announced the voice of the one who had approached in their back, two bottles of whiskey in his hands.

"Roronoa… No offense but I'm afraid I won't be moving for a while." smiled he with one of his self-confident grin.

"Hum…" paused Zoro with a glance for the girl sleeping on WhiteBeard's Second Commander, "Yeah, we need to talk…"

TILT. A bit surprised by the statement, Ace quietly accepted the bottle Zoro was holding out to him and patiently watched as the swordsman was going to sit on a another large rock on the other side of the fire.

The two men stared at each other for some time, sizing up their interlocutor with a crooked glance while slowly gulping down some whiskey.

Seconds… minutes flew by… one by one… in silence…

"So… What are your intentions?" finally asked Zoro with a knowing glance for the sleeping girl.

"I don't believe it concerns you…" stated Ace with a calm though proud tone, rising one of his eyebrow in a provocative expression.

Zoro stared deep into his interlocutor's eyes for long seconds, as if searching for some elements that might give him hints about what WhiteBeard's Commander's thoughts could be.

And Ace stared back, not planning on losing ground against his green-haired interlocutor.

The freezing night breeze blew on the bonfire, making the bubble float a bit more chaotically…

"If you're playing around with someone who wants to play, I can't care less… If you're serious with someone serious, I'll even give you my blessing… But…" paused Zoro while answering Ace's arrogant smile with one of his trademark shadowy smirk, " … if you're playing around with someone serious… I'll make you taste Hell!"

SHIN. The flames sizzled and the fire wood crackled under a stronger draught…

Ace arched an eyebrow, but dubiously, this time, not really understanding in which sense he should be taking Zoro's declaration.

_Fuu is serious in general but doesn't feel anything special for me… And even if I'm spending my time teasing her because it's the only thing I can do to be special for her for now, I'm NOT playing with her… _tried he to analyse while withstanding the swordsman dark glare without a chill, _So… so…?_

"I don't see what you're talking about…" finally declared Ace with a serious expression.

TILT. Zoro's eyes twitched with wonder.

"She's not the type to play around with anyone, but there's nothing serious either…" stated Ace with a gentle glance for the one sleeping on his shoulder, "So nothing which should concern you!"

TILT. Zoro frowned slightly, inwardly wondering if Ace was bluffing:

_What is he talking about, this dumbass? Even if Fuu seems to have trouble recognizing it, she's clearly behaving differently with him… And almost everyone can see it! He can't be that dense…? I had thought he would be less dumb than our captain, but I got it damned wrong: must be some family traits… Or is it that he's thinking that all the little things he can see are just his wishful thinking?_

"Humph…" grinned Zoro with an expression bordering on an amused provocation, while lifting up the whiskey bottle to his mouth to resume his drinking.

_Tsk… Don't count on me to open his eyes!_

And on this last syllable, the two pirates kept on mounting guard without exchanging a single more word, time flying by at the rhythm of the slow breathing of the hazelnut-haired sleeper who had missed the whole of the conversation, despite her being its main topic.


	32. Story V, Quest, Pistols & Petticoats 1

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

Pistols & Petticoats ~Part 1~

…

**EL DORADO, GOLD MINES, EARLY MORNING**

Ace grumpily woke up at the sound the bell chiming in the mines galleries, the administrators announcing the end of curfew time. And he surprised himself with noticing he was now lying on the ground near the bonfire, while Zoro and the others were still snoring on his left.

Rousing himself from his torpor, he dragged himself in a sitting position and felt some soft fabric falling from his bust onto his lap. Still in a daze, Ace gazed at the blanket which had been covering him: the very same blanket he was remembering to have put around the shoulders of a hazelnut-haired girl.

TILT. As realization stroke that such girl was nowhere in sight, Ace snapped awake – completely awake – and turned around briskly, searching his surroundings for the missing person.

But his turmoil cooled down as quickly as it has arisen, when finally catching sight of her, a couple of metres away from him, discussing in low voice with Robin.

WhiteBeard's Second Commander stumbled back on his feet and walked closer to the two women chatting actively, either pointing out at some parts of the gallery or flipping through the pages of the book Robin had open for them to read.

"Fuu…?" called Ace, his voice still groggy from the night, and cursing his own narcolepsy for not remembering when he had fallen asleep, and more specially when she had woken up.

"Ah, Ace! Good timing!" greeted Fuu with an earnest smile at seeing him drawing near, "We're going to need your help to extract the gold, later on."

"The… gold…?" repeated Ace, apparently not awake enough for conversation, but still remembering that the gold had been the least of his preoccupations the night before.

"Yes, the both of us have finished checking onto the details." announced Robin with one of her usual calm smiles while closing up her book, "But we're going to need your fire power, Ace-san. If it's fine with you, of course."

"Hum, sure…" mumbled Ace while massaging his neck, "What for?"

"Well, we are planning on giving a common explanation when everyone else will be awake." softly dodged the archaeologist, "Especially Kokaishi-san…"

And without Ace managing to learn more about the aforementioned plan, he was left to see the little group of campers come to life, one by one – or more abruptly when Nami was sending a kick in the sleepers who didn't want to wake up normally – while Sanji was preparing breakfast with the help of Fuu – for whatever task the cook was allowing her to help, which was quite a comical scene every time.

Ace's claiming stomach then made him review his list of priorities, and he readily joined his little brother for a fight over the food, contributing heavily to the chaos reigning during meal-time, not that it was a change for the group of pirates – only Sanji was despairing about having two black-hole-stomached brothers around, which was a serious threat for his food supply.

"Yosh! Now, back to digging!" finally declared Nami when the plates had all been emptied of their content, "We're not going to let this mountain keep its gold hidden for long!"

But before she could assign jobs again, the mikan-haired navigator saw her two friends drawing near her with a conniving smile.

"Nami…" began Fuu with an enthusiastic smile, "We have a different strategy to propose: it should help us to find the gold more easily."

"What?" exclaimed Nami, both of surprise and eager interest, while the declaration was making the rest of the Mugiwaras converge around them.

"Actually, the rock in which you're digging ever since yesterday has zero probability of containing goldfields." began Robin, having re-opened her book 'Gold Prospection for Dummies' to quote her source, "Veins of gold are formed only in ultra-mafic deposits, such as ultra-potassic rocks and melanocrates, which are igneous rocks constituted at more than 90% of coloured minerals such as iron and magnesium…"

At that point of the explanation, Luffy, Usopp, Zoro and Chopper were back around the bonfire, enjoying a cup of green tea in complete beatitude while discussing how rocks could be 'mysterious', and Sanji and Brook were also seriously considering joining them.

"To keep it simple…" tried Fuu while directing her sentence at them, "It means gold can be found in rock forming blocks – and not in layers – and which look like peppered with a lot of coloured dots… And the rock you were digging in yesterday is plain beige and looks like a layered cake so…"

"So it's useless to keep on digging in this part of the gallery anymore." concluded Robin in a serene tone, before adding in a more enthusiastic tone to cheer up Nami who had started sulking at the word 'useless': "We've found on the west face of a gallery nearby the type of rock we need."

The little group of pirates was now back on their feet and eagerly waiting for more specification.

"It's the reddish wall at 60 some metres in the left gallery." pointed out Fuu while turning back to her nakamas to point in the aforementioned gallery direction, "And the nice thing is that as long as we find the start of a gold vein in this wall, we have a trick to help us extract all the rest of the steam quite easily. It's…"

FUSH. But Fuu didn't have time enough to finish her explanation, as she felt a swift draught pass her by: and as she was staring dazedly at the gallery in front of her which had been empty a mere second before, she could catch sight of five silhouettes which were running towards the nearby reddish wall.

"Yosh! I didn't really catch it, but there's gold in this wall, hum?" exclaimed Luffy with a very motivated grin.

"Trust Super-Franky to cut you up this rock, block or layers alike!" exclaimed the cyborg while already readying tools which were popping out from eerie places of his body.

"Yeah, what Robin and Fuu said, I already knew it! This wall is red, so we'll find gold in it!" lied Usopp with a proud expression.

"For real?" believed Chopper with star-filled eyes.

"I just heard you right, huh…? I really heard it, huh? Just a little beginning of gold vein and that will bring us tons of it, right?" exclaimed Nami with Berrys instead of eyes, as she was shooting a hopeful glance at her two nakamas behind her.

"Hum… kind of…" mumbled Fuu, a huge drop of weary sweat appearing on her temple.

_She's getting carried away! Definitely! And what with that wishful selective hearing? We didn't even finish explaining how to proceed… Sigh…_

"Yare yare…" serenely giggled Robin, having already expected the conversation to never reach its term before losing half of its interlocutors.

"SANJI-KUN! ZORO! BROOK!" called the imperious voice of Nami from the corner of the gallery, "What are you waiting for? Come and help us to search this rock!"

And the three enforced workers walked towards the new extraction point with more or less of enthusiasm.

"Zoro-san, it's the left gallery…" kindly pointed out Brook upon reaching the crossing, as the swordsman was going in the opposite direction.

_Oh my… _inwardly laughed Fuu upon seeing their green-haired nakama mistaking such a simple direction, as usual.

"What about me?" interrupted a voice near her ear, as a strong arm was falling around her shoulders to softly pull her backwards, as if to drive her attention away from the directionally-challenged swordsman, "You said you'll need me, didn't you?"

"A… Ace…?" startled Fuu, trying forcibly not to blush and fighting to move the strong arm off her shoulders.

"We are indeed going to need your help, Ace-san… but not now." answered Robin with an amused look for the scene.

Fuu was still struggling to get away from Ace, and WhiteBeard's Second Commander seemed to have thought the tease to be enough – or either had reached his goal, whatever objective he had had – and had finally released her, but not without sending her one of his most amused crooked smiles.

"You should have your moment with Fuu a bit later…" began Robin with an amused smile at her own innuendo, "When the others will have found a gold vein, we'll use her Devil Fruit power to determine the extent of the steam, and then your fire power will be necessary to extract it from the rock. High electrical conductivity and ductility are two useful characteristics of gold, in our present situation…"

"Useful characteristics…?" repeated Ace while raising an eyebrow, a bit perplexed about the explanation.

"Yes… Gold is a bit special, even for a metal…" pursued Fuu with still a sulking glance for the one who had been teasing her a minute before, "Electricity is running through it really easily, and most of all, it's melting really quickly, so…"

"So we are planning on using one of Fuu's electric sparks to determine in which directions are spreading the gold veins…" explained Robin calmly, "Then to use your fire power to make it reach its fusion temperature and make it naturally flow out of the rock."

"Flow?" tilted Ace with a dumbfounded expression at having difficulty to imagine some gold pouring out from the wall as if it was water.

"Well, kind of…" answered Fuu with an assured smile for their dubious interlocutor, "More like falling…"

"But that still means you need the gold to be liquid for that… right?" asked Ace while frowning, "So if I'm following you right, you want me to heat the gold but not the rest so that it goes out of the rock just like that?"

"Actually, when we'll know how the gold veins are spread out inside the rock, we'll look for the lowest point of the whole steam. Then, at that place, if you're heating the rock enough," resumed Fuu while trying to illustrate her explanation with gestures, "then the heat will propagate directly through the metal and reach every gold vein, making it melt but not the rock, since they're not liquefying at the same temperature. With the difference of level, all the gold melted above the point of extraction will flow down towards the only hole we'll have opened, just like a thick waterfall, and we should able to collect it."

"Wow… Impressive…" admitted Ace in a soft whistle of admiration, "Was that extraction method also mentioned in the book?"

"Well, not really, hihihi…" grinned Fuu with a conniving tone, "But we discussed it together with Robin and found the concept interesting. She's really smart on all kind of topics, it's really impressive!"

"Well… Books are a great source of knowledge…" philosophically countered Robin, "But I'm more impressed by the one who knew about such concepts even before reading them in a book…"

TILT. Fuu's grin instantly vanished as she felt all the underlying meaning of such comment, and when she finally cautiously brought her eyes back on her two interlocutors, it was to face the amused smile of one and the bewildered and curious stare of the other.

_I missed a wonderful occasion to keep my mouth shut… _bitterly regretted she while averting her eyes from them and trying to find something to change the topic.

"Not in a book, hum…" began Ace, unfortunately resuming the conversation before that, "So how is it that you know about that kind of things too, Fuu?"

The last word has chimed in like an injunction not to run away, as if to tell the hazelnut-haired girl that he was perfectly aware of the fact she wanted to avoid the question but wouldn't let her dodge it.

Fuu bite her inferior lips and raised some sulking eyes towards WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

_Great… THE question I would really like NOT to have to answer…! Tsk, Clow is going to chew me again for not knowing my place and playing it smart-ass in a world where people usually don't go to school, never minding study in Universities… And as much as it cost me to admit it, he would be right on this one…_

_I should have thought about it before discussing geology with Robin, sigh… Even if she's really smart and knowledgeable and always has a collection of books about everything and anything, I guess she's a rarity on Grand Line… I'm sure Luffy or Ace never went to school… How could I reasonably justify myself by saying that everyone from where I'm coming from is at least learning that much in geology and chemistry in high school and therefore know the basics about rocks formation and metal fusion? Damn it…_

And while Fuu was rummaging her brain to find a plausible excuse out of her predicament, Ace shot a quick glance at Robin, as if silently asking her if she knew more details. But the archaeologist simply shook her head slightly and decided to press on.

"I'm quite curious too, Fuu." added she with genuine interest, "We had a Master in Quantum Physics who came one day at Ohara, but I remember him saying institutes to study them were rare…"

"So… what about you?" insisted Ace while narrowing his eyes a bit.

"I… hum, I… I followed… private studies…" mumbled Fuu while forcing her brain cells to think faster to try and find a not-a-lie-but-not-the-entire-truth-either version of her past to serve to two of the most sagacious people of their group – and unfortunately two of the most curious ones too.

"Private studies?" startled a bit Robin with an expression of authentic surprise, "But how? I mean, of course it's possible, but on the Five Seas, only Royal Families would have the means to hir…"

SHIN. And Robin stopped abruptly in the middle of her sentence, half-regretting to have already said so much without having considered first what the remark could imply for her friend.

And while she was swallowing back the rest of her sentence, Ace was mentally completing it, adding it to all the things he had already noticed respecting to Fuu's behaviour and knowledge – or absence of knowledge – and finally couldn't help but reaching a very troubling conclusion respecting to Fuu's origins.

"Fuu…" called he faintly, turning his face towards her in a determined yet resigned attitude.

TILT. Fuu froze, inwardly cursing fate for not having let the matter slip and spared her the scene she was already foreseeing.

"Fuu," called once again Ace, but this time grabbing gently her shoulders to force her to look his way, "I'm not going to pretend that what I heard had never been said, so just answer me, okay?"

Fuu's eyes widened and she gazed at her interlocutor with pure astonishment.

_Wh… what…?_

"Fuu, don't take me wrong… It's not that your origins matter a lot, but… Well you know, it's just…" started to explain himself Ace in quite an embarrassed and hesitating tone, as if making up his mind along the way, "It's just, I would really like to know… I'd like you to trust me with the truth…"

_My… origins…?_

Still puzzled by the turn the conversation was taking, Fuu gazed at him intensely, not really understanding Ace's point but feeling her heart tingle at the mention of 'trust' and 'truth' although her head was still screaming her to try harder and review all the escape scenarios available in stock to explain herself without having to say that she was coming from a different world.

"If you don't want to say it, I'll say it for you…" sighed Ace at seeing that his interlocutor's lips were sealed, "It's obvious enough for not needing you to confirm it, now…"

Fuu stopped breathing, wondering what Ace was going to ask her.

"So…" pursued Ace with a determined gaze for his hazelnut-haired interlocutor, "You're from a noble family, right?"

SHIN. A minute of silence fell on the conversation, Fuu blinking but still not breathing, completely astounded by Ace's supposition.

_Wh… what did he just say?_

"You're from nobility, high nobility, aren't you…?" repeated Ace while staring deep into her eyes, his declaration sounding more like an affirmation than a question.

"I… I'm not…" began Fuu in a mumble, not really knowing what to answer to such an absurd supposition and her lungs gasping for more air now that she had remembered how to breathe again.

"It's fine, I told you there's no need to confirm it… Robin's remark was more than enough to seize up the matter…" sighed Ace with a resigned smile on his lips, before letting go of Fuu's shoulders to turn a bit away from her as if ashamed for not having realised the 'matter' before, "And now that I think about it, it's just all too clear and making perfect sense… It explains your attitude, the fact that you're decidedly not looking like a pirate, that you're so obviously different from other people…"

_AHH? Obvious that I am NOBLE…? No but what is he saying, that idiot?_

"After all, it's not hard to see that you're smarter than average… but otherwise, you don't even know the basics for fighting and you're panicking when someone is hurt…" began to enumerate Ace while thinking back about how Doa nobles families were never dirtying their hands and fighting by themselves, "Even for daily routine like sailing or exploring, even if you're trying your best to help out, it's quite obvious that you've probably never done so before…"

_But… But that's just that how anyone from the real world would react, that! We're not pirates since infancy, us! So of course it's not like we're fighting crocodiles every morning and sailing the ocean every afternoon! And of course we would panic upon seeing someone hurt and bleeding and… and…_

_Come on, that's just the normal behaviour anyone from the real world would have if they were to be brutally sent into One Piece! And if you really want to know, I'm sure there are plenty of them who would even behave weirder than me and never adapt to this crazy world, tsk!_

"Hum… And also, you're preferring long dresses to the usual outfits of pirate women, and stay always polite and courteous with everyone, so it's quite clear your education must have been something else…" was still adding up Ace to his little list, without considering he was probably not in position of lecturing anyone on policy, "But the most evident aspect is the fact that you're talking as an equal with Oyaji or Fimbul's Queen, as if they were people you already knew for a long time and were on the same rank as you…"

_What the…? No seriously, for something like that? Well, sure, I kind of already knew about them before meeting them… and I guess since I wasn't really fan enough of them to faint upon meeting fictional characters in real flesh, I might have acted a bit TOO normally… but how would you have wanted me to react without seeming rude?_

"So everything matches: a true lady well educated and who's grown up in a cocoon, not knowing about the dirty aspects of life and not used to associating with pirates…" was concluding Ace, making Fuu's flush completely with shame at such a statement, "And then… if you're really from nobility, it would also explain why you seem to have near to no experience with men!"

BONG. Fuu's fist had violently landed on Ace's skull, the last sentence having definitely made her crack up.

_What the…? How come I'm a princess with no experience with men? You damned playboy!_

"Ouch…" grumbled Ace while softly bringing him back on a sitting position on the ground while massaging his head, "Well, sure… I readily admit that your bad habit of leaving bumps on people's head doesn't do the honours to your origins, but…"

"Wh… what are you saying?" thundered Fuu, still flushed with anger and shame, "I'm…."

"Fuu…" softly cut Robin's voice, making the hazelnut-haired girl stop her denial and turn towards her, "I am supporting Ace-san on this topic… It's not only about your manners, even if I must admit that your curtsey for the Ice Queen was already quite a tell-tale sign…"

_Waaaahh, don't tell me they're putting me in 'Princess' category just for a curtsey? Ace is always bowing really politely to everyone and nobody is calling him a Prince or anything…! Sure, my… greeting… was rather British than Japanese, but anyone who would have seen an Historical movie or drama would know it's an appropriate way of greeting a Queen, and could replicate it easily…!_

_And also… Princesses are not that common, for God's sake! A runaway spying Princess like Vivi is NOT the kind of occurrence which happens very often… seriously! And don't tell me that Luffy and the others are meeting enough Princesses along their trip to think about it as a plausible origin for whatever of their nakamas whose past they ignore, come on…!_

"But the main argument is elsewhere… You might not know it, but on Grand Line, only Royal Families and the Tenryubito have the means to hire Masters in Quantum Physics or other discipline to give private studies to their children, and books with intelligent information are quite hard to find on such sciences…" pursued Robin, who had full knowledge of the facts for having often heard the Scholars of Ohara ranting about the lack of knowledge transmission across the Seas, "So that leaves us with very high chances of you being part of such High Nobility…"

SHIN. Fuu was now gasping at emptiness, mentally trying to assert how someone as smart as Robin could reach such an improbable conclusion concerning her origins, while Ace was also listening attentively, eagerly interested by the black-haired archaeologist line of reasoning.

"Well… I would understand if you want to deny it, considering the present situation, but you can't disagree that a lot of 'coincidences' happened, and that the previous supposition could answer lots of them…" sighed Robin with a resigned and reproachful smile, making Fuu even more ill-at-ease, "Like the fact your brother was able to delay the apparition of a bounty on your head, even after what happened at Marine Ford… Besides, it would also explain why the epithet on your wanted poster is not your real name, and why they would prefer to see you dead rather than to hold a public execution, not wanting to take the risk of letting it turn into a political affair if the name of their precious dynasty were to be sullied by a criminal…"

_Th… that's… well, okay, sure, technically, what she's saying is making sense… Even in our world, History have proved that royalty would rather disavow and kill themselves a renegade than to bet their family pride on it… and it's also true that royalty often has the power to stifle any scandal… Sure, I can't deny that Clow USED some power to hush up my interference at Marine Ford, which INDEED delayed the apparition of a bounty on my head… and INDEED he did so because of our origins… But it wasn't really because of political reasons or of family pride! Well… unless we can call a multi-dimensional paradox a world political affair… and unless his adoration for Oda-Sensei and the shame of having messed up this universe can be called pride… Hum… No wait, that's not the point!_

"And not only would it explain why you are knowledgeable in a various range of sciences or extinct languages, it would also elucidate the fact that both your brother and you have impressive Devil Fruits that even the higher-ups of the Marine or the CP9 would have had trouble to get their hands on…" kept analysing Robin, with a slight rictus are the mention of the CP9.

_D… damn these out-of-this-world Devil Fruits! I knew it was a bad idea right from the start… And even if Clow can't really help it if his author's power turned into his Kari Kari no Mi, he could have toned up with my Hoshi Hoshi no Mi a bit… Now, how can I possibly refute Robin's argument? If they were to exist, such tremendously powerful Fruits can of course only be acquired by the most important people of this universe… because two lucky draws for two people close to each other can't reasonably be explained by coincidence… Ugh… so how am I supposed to counter?_

Robin was now gazing at Fuu with one of her usual mysterious smiles, apparently amused to see her hazelnut-haired friend looking so deep in thoughts, as if rummaging her brain really hard to find something to answer. And such an innocent panicking expression on the face of someone so bad at lying could only make the archaeologist laugh inwardly, thinking that whatever secret she might hold onto, it probably wouldn't be changing who she was.

"Besides, I am particularly attached to this scenario for another reason… On top of rationally explaining a lot of coincidences, I also find it to be remarkably romantic…" concluded Robin with a somewhat knowing smile and a soft giggle.

SHIN. Fuu had immediately stopped her little debates with herself and was now looking at Robin with earnest surprise, her face the picture of bewilderment.

Even Ace – who had kept silent during the whole of Robin's discourse, carefully listening to her arguments and suppositions and eagerly watching their impact on the hazelnut-haired girl hearing them out – raised his eyes towards the archaeologist, quite puzzled by her last comment.

"Ro… romantic…?" repeated Fuu with a baffled expression, completely taken aback by hearing such a word from the black-haired friend who she knew was definitely not the type to participate in fluffy-girly-lovey-dovey chats.

"Yes…" calmly narrated Robin with a smile filled with innuendos, "The very romantic story of a daughter from the highest nobility who would have waived her title to become a pirate when having fallen in love for the son of the greatest criminal of all-time, saving him from his scaffold and then deciding to cruise Grand Line on his side…"

SHIN. Robin's insinuation had brought forth a heavy silence, and long seconds of emptiness dragged between the three interlocutors.

The archaeologist watched with sheer amusement the gradual reactions of the two young people in front of her. Because even if they had both done every effort possible not to turn their eyes towards each other – by fear of thus confirming the link between themselves and the hints given by Robin – Fuu and Ace's expressions were speaking for themselves.

Fuu's cheeks had recover their bright scarlet tone from a few minutes before, but this time not because of shame for being called an innocent princess, while Ace had slowly let his eyes fall under the shadow of his hat, although it hadn't been enough to hide the presence of a slight blush on his cheeks too.

And all interlocutors had now their lips sealed, though it was in deep embarrassment for two of them while the third had them stretched in an impossible-to-interpret smile.

Long seconds – even longer for the two troubled people involved in the innuendo – flew by, barely paced by the sound of picks digging the rock in the gallery nearby.

And the first one to raise his head up again was Ace, who slowly moved his eyes towards the hazelnut-haired girl standing on his right, his left hand of the ground gradually tightening as he was building up resolve.

But as he was parting his lips to break the silence, another scream chimed in from the corner of the left gallery at some dozens of metre from where they were standing.

"FOUND IT!" roared the energetic voice of Luffy, soon followed by a lot of rumbling noises and various exclamations.

"IT'S GOLD!" confirmed a high-pitched exclamation, Nami's voice sounding happier than ever.

And the boisterous noises grew louder as some of their authors were running back towards the part of the cavern in which Robin, Fuu and Ace were standing.

"Fuu-chan, Robin-chan, we finally found some gold!" exclaimed Sanji while appearing at the corner of the gallery, inviting with a smile two of his goddesses to come for the next step of the extraction.

TILT. Fuu had startled at the shouts, and had made a swift U-turn to answer the newcomer, while inwardly ordering her cheeks to cool down.

"Co… coming!" mumbled she while definitely turning away from Robin and Ace, abandoning the previous embarrassing conversation on the spot.

_Phew… great timing! Robin is always having the eeriest remarks, but I wasn't expecting to hear the word 'romantic' from her… It's really OOC I think!_

_Tsk… And I'm sure I became bright scarlet because of her little insinuation… Especially since it would have been impossible not to understand the implied meaning behind it… even Luffy would have understood… and Ace… Ace… Hum, I wonder… what he thought about it… What… what does he think… about it… about me… about u… WAAAAAAHHH! What am I thinking? Stop, stop, stop right now, my mind!_

_Let's stop that right now! Besides, it was only a joke from Robin, it's not like I could take his reaction seriously, whatever reaction he could have… It's stupid to hope and… ho… ho… HOPE? Wait a second, I'm… it's… I'm not hoping anything, it's a misunderstanding, waaaaahhhh… And a twisted one too! What kind of cliché scenario would that be, seriously?_

And while shaking her head from left to right to try and erase some disturbing thoughts off of her mind, Fuu pressed her steps towards the nearby gallery in which were waiting the rest of the Mugiwaras, still dancing with joy around their golden discovery.

A few metres behind her was following Robin, calm and composed as ever, but Ace had not stood up yet.

He was still sitting on the floor, his right hand raised in the direction of Fuu's back and still hanging in mid-air, after missing the hazelnut-haired girl's hand when she had swiftly turned and walked away from him. A faint regret was still lingering in his fingers, for having missed the opportunity to catch her back and crush her in his embrace while demanding her to tell him the truth about her origins, her family and more than anything the reason why she had jeopardized everything to save him from his execution. So his hand was still suspended there, as if his mind and heart were still disagreeing on whether he had been right or not to let her escape, as if he was telling himself not to force her to tell him the truth if it was costing her so much while he couldn't help but want her to confide in him, as if he was still hesitating between propriety and what he truly desired.

So Ace could only gaze at the now empty space in front of him, and finally lowered his hand, clenching his teeth and fists as if to hold back the frustration of seeing her walk away from him without having answered his hopes. He then breathed deeply to calm down, cursing himself for having got his hopes so buffed by Robin's remarks, and finally jumped back on his feet.

And while composing his usual cool expression on his face, he followed everyone's shouts towards the newly-discovered gold steam.


	33. Story V, Quest, Pistols & Petticoats 2

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

Pistols & Petticoats ~Part.2~

…

**EL DORADO, GOLD MINES**

In the mine gallery, the joyful and bustling exclamations had finally quieted down and everyone was now rounding up around the gold inclusion in the rock.

"That's it, we've found the start of a gold vein!" Nami exclaimed proudly and avidly, "So what are we going to do with it, now?"

Robin began her explanation, repeating to the whole group what they had explained Ace an hour before.

Meanwhile, Fuu had walked closer to the gallery wall and had put her index finger on the gold inclusion, closing her eyes to focus on an electric spell before activating her Devil Fruit power. The spark fused through the gold vein, propelling itself in the whole steam and rebounding on each dead-end before slowly sending back signals to its issuer. Fuu mentally added up information to represent herself the web of the gold veins in the rock.

"Wow!" The Mugiwaras exclaimed in unison when Robin had finally finished explaining them the system they had elaborated to extract the gold – even if a part of them had probably not understood at all the details of the process.

"So you're going to melt all the gold, Ace?" asked Luffy, turning his head towards his brother, having caught onto that part of the plan.

"Ah, hum… yeah!" grumbled Ace while trying to regain composure to answer normally to his little brother, even if his eyes were still wandering on the back of a hazelnut-haired girl who was still facing the gallery wall.

"So, komusume, what's up? How long and deep is this goldfield?" asked Franky while walking closer to the aforementioned girl.

"I think we're quite lucky…" smiled Fuu, finally opening her eyes and removing her finger from the gold inclusion, breaking her 'spell' in the process." The steam is important in volume and it's not too deep vertically, so it's going to be easy to extract it the way Robin explained."

Everyone grinned at such an encouraging comment and as Nami's eyes glittered with dancing Berries, they started preparing the equipment needed to dig the rock in order to reach the lowest point of the stream.

"So, just where are ending the gold veins? What kind of access do you need?" asked Franky while taking out a little notebook from a trap door of his body.

"Hum… The best would be to dig a shaft here," Fuu began to explain while pointing at a place four metres on their right. "And it needs to be large enough for us to go down into it to extract the gold… But to reach the lowest point of the steam, it needs to be… hum… needs to be…"

"Do you need it to be vertical? Which angle for the digging? And how deep? Where exactly is the end of the gold steam you want to reach?" Franky inquired, already drawing geometrical shapes and calculating angles in his notebook.

"Hum… That's… I… how could I explain…?" Fuu muttered as she was starting to get confused, having in mind the repartition of the gold steam but she was having trouble trying to integrate it in a scheme to work with their current location.

She frowned deeply, trying hard to think of an intelligible way of explaining to their engineer how to access the lowest point of the steam.

_Grr… Oh well… Franky is way more skilled in engineering than I could ever dream of becoming… so I guess it would be better to give him the primary data than asking him to put through my terrible way of explaining … _Fuu thought to herself with a sigh.

Finally abandoning any hope to explain it with words, Fuu put her hand on Franky's forearm before closing her eyes to focus her mind on the 'spell' she wanted to use. Through her Devil Fruit power, the blue-haired cyborg received by telepathy the plan in three dimensions of the gold veins running through the rock. Fuu had even specified with mental focus their actual position and the point they wanted to reach by imaginary stars.

Past the surprise of suddenly receiving such information in such a way, Franky whistled in admiration at such a nice way of explaining things then resumed his scribble on the small notebook to give a quick rendering of the gold steam and of the shaft they would need to reach the lowest point.

"Okay, so… that's it!" said he when he showed the blueprints to Fuu while everyone gradually started gathering around them to see the result of the engineering discussion. "So, here is the gold vein you want to reach as an exit point… and here is where we're going to dig the shaft, a 5-6 metres deep one on some 164° of angle comparing to the wall… It should be enough to give you enough pressure with the downpour of gold to let you control the flow while provoking an aspiration effect for the most faraway veins of the stream…"

_Oh my… I had completely forgotten about that…! _Fuu cursed herself while being secretly grateful to the shipwright for having considered this detail in his calculations.

"… but you'll need to be really well-paced and regular for the extraction or the aspiration effect will be lost, you know…" warned Franky with a knowing glance for Ace who had also come closer to hear about the operation he was going to participate in, "Well, should be fine, I guess, if you're able to keep the temperature constant… Oh, and yeah, now that I think about it, we also need to dig a recess under the extraction point to let you put a recipient under the 'tap'… and I guess that also mean we need to dig a bit deeper to give you and Hiken some vital space… How wide do you want this well to be, komusume?"

Fuu was startled at the mention of the width – or absence of width – of the well in which she was going to climb down, but she ordered herself not to panic yet and relegated her anxiety of confined places to the bottom list of her priority list to give a more rationalized answer.

"Well…" mumbled she while trying to keep the tone of her voice under control, "If the most important thing is not to lose the heat, let's try and keep it to the minimum: 2 metres of diameter should be enough for Ace and I to be standing down there while Robin makes the buckets flow in and out to load them with the gold…"

"2 metres, hum…?" frowned Franky, "Well, it's already quite wide, air-mass-related… 1,5m to 1,75m would be better… and maybe I could make the top of the well narrower, that should help a bit, temperature wise…"

"S…sure…" Fuu stuttered while forcing a smile on her lips, trying her best not to let her mind stop on the word 'narrower' and on each precious centimetre of vital space lost in the process.

While Franky was scribbling a bit more on his notebook, among the various star-shaped expressions full of admiration and Berry-shaped eyes full of expectations, there were two pairs of eyes staring suspiciously at the face Fuu was making, detecting without trouble that something was odd.

The rest of the morning was spent actively digging the aforementioned shaft, Franky having attributed everyone with a task. And this time everyone was at work, Fuu having managed to win over Sanji in an intense debate about whether it was okay or not for her to get her hands dirty in such a task: even the gentleman in Sanji had finally given up at seeing the hazelnut-haired girl so motivated for working – although the real reason behind her enthusiasm had been rather the desperate wish to keep her mind busy with some physical activity than to let it wander on some irrational fears.

Nami had been actively encouraging everyone else while fantasizing about the number of bags they were going to fill with gold, and her motivation had even been enough to make her take part in the 'dirty' work – though it mainly included handling picks and shovels to the guys and throwing out of her ways some buckets filled with gravels.

Robin was often discussing the progression of the work with Franky, while catching back – with one of her duplicated arms – from times to others Usopp who was gliding on the edge of the well and nearly falling into it.

And Ace had joined his brother in the digging, trying to moderate Luffy's enthusiasm in digging like crazy even in places where Franky had not said it needed to be dug… but it was clear that his mind wasn't focusing on the work – as Luffy soon found out when trying to make Ace laugh with one of their grimacing performances with Chopper, before realizing with a sulk that his brother was out of it – and even narcolepsy only stroke twice during the whole morning.

**

* * *

AROUND NOON**

Finally, the so-expected gold vein appeared at the bottom of the well, making everyone shout joyful exclamations of victory.

"The GOLD!" marvelled Nami with Berry-shaped eyes. "Fuu… how long before you can extract it?"

"Well…" paused Fuu, a drop of sweat appearing on her temple at seeing Nami's impatient expression and shooting pitiful glances at their blue-haired engineer to ask for help, "We first need to see which debit we're going to have down there…"

"But logically, considering the volume, it should take several hours…" specified Franky while looking at another page of his notebook where he had calculated with Robin. "If everything is going super well…"

"I see…" mumbled Nami, a bit disappointed by the answer.

"Don't worry Nami, I'll do my best, I promise!" Fuu said, trying to cheer Nami up while repressing a laugh at seeing her friend nearly depressed – the kind of expression that only money problems could cause on the face of the mikan-haired navigator.

"So, are we going down, Ace?" asked Fuu as naturally as she could, trying not to be too obvious as she quickly made a worried glance at the deep and narrow hole everyone had finished digging and in which she was going to jump into.

The long hours of work had for long erased the embarrassment of the 'princess' conversation, but they still both had a lot in their mind. Nonetheless, Ace answered her some confident and reassuring smile, and Robin joined in with as much motivation.

"Just tell me when you will be ready and I'll be waiting at the top of the well to empty the recipients and send you the next ones…" smiled she with a glance for the pile of buckets Nami had diligently prepared near the shaft.

"And what about us?" asked Luffy, all dirty from the previous digging but seemingly enjoying himself a lot and waiting for the next challenge with a joyful child-like grin.

"Franky said there's no place for everyone to climb down…" reminded Usopp while scratching his head with a disappointed expression, "So it's not like we can help…"

Luffy's face crumbled a bit.

"And our dear Robin-san did say that the only useful abilities for extracting the gold were Ace-san's and Fuu-san's…" calmly added Brook, "So it's not like we would be of any use down there…"

Luffy's expression had now reached an even lower level.

"I don't want to make a mess of your little plan, but how about having lunch first?" offered Sanji while lighting on a cigarette.

Luffy's expression had brightened beyond any reasonable point at hearing the offer, but this time it was Nami's face which had crumbled at the thought of having to wait longer before filling up her bags with gold.

"Well… we still need to move all the camping stuff and the bonfire, though… but it should be ready soon." specified the blond cook, while making a vague gesture in direction of the gallery where all their equipment was still waiting. "Is it fine with you, Fuu-chan, Robin-Chan?"

"Oh… hum, well… I… I won't mind skipping lunch, so please don't worry about me…" hesitated Fuu while forcing a smile, knowing perfectly well that her stomach won't allow any food considering how twisted it was at the thought of the narrow well awaiting her.

At the comment, a most of the group stared at her in surprise, including Nami's joy at thinking that such offer meant Fuu was going to take care of the gold sooner than expected before it faltered a bit at realising it was weird for her nakama to play it alone instead of joining the group.

"Skipping lunch?… Are you feeling okay, Fuu-chan?" asked Sanji with a worried tone, "You didn't eat a lot yesterday evening either…"

"Yeah, I remember you giving us your share…" Usopp said with a puzzled expression, "It can't be that you're going on a diet, right?"

"WHAT? A diet?" exclaimed Sanji, his eyes bulging out of their sockets of shock and vexation at the thought, "Fuu-chan, please don't tell me you're planning on losing weight by making cuts in the meals I'm especially elaborating to keep your goddess bodies in perfect shapes?"

"Hey?" tilted Fuu, flabbergasted by the speed at which the conversation had lost tracks, "No, that's…"

"You know, Fuu, Sanji-kun is always very cautious to keep our meals perfectly balanced and full of vitamins so that we can always be at the top of our health and our beauty…" added Nami while turning her head towards her friend with a lecturing pose, "You'll never gain weight with it, so it's useless to want and try stop to eating them!"

"Fuu, you want to stop eating?" exclaimed Luffy, completely shocked at the thought, "But WHY?"

"Fuu-san, it might be customary for young ladies to care about their appearance, but to stop eating won't make you more beautiful." sighed Brook with a resigned pose, "On the contrary, it would only make you the same as me and leave you with only the skin on the bones… even if I do not have skin anymore, yohohoho! Skull Joke!"

"Like I said, it's not…" Fuu tried to say while raising her hands in denial but without having time enough to find argument to counter theirs.

"Yeah, I never understood why you girls are always on diet…" added Franky while crossing his arms, "But if it's because you want to become prettier, I can't really see why you're fussing over it, the cook…"

"You don't understand!" retorted Sanji while pointing at the cyborg, "If Fuu-chan is going on a diet, not only will her skin lose her natural gleam because of anaemia, but she will also lose precious centimetres of bust and hip measurement!"

CRASH. A good part of the pirates present had collapsed on the ground, knocked off by the remark of the blond cook.

"Anaemia…?" repeated Chopper, who hadn't collapsed, him, for not really understanding what the problem could be with Sanji's comment, "Fuu, you have anaemia? Is that the reason why you don't look well? Oh, is it because you used your power before?"

TILT. The rest of the group – who was gradually getting back on their feet – immediately recovered their seriousness at hearing Chopper's suggestion, and Fuu felt more and more worried glances converging towards her.

"Gyaa… Fuu! You used your power?" asked Luffy, who hadn't really followed the previous steps of the gold steam detection, "Just because I told you on the Sunny it was fine to use it from times to others doesn't mean you can do whatever you want!"

The crew all sighed at the thought of the most reckless of them lecturing someone else on such a point.

"It… it's… I'm fine, really…" Fuu tried to reassure him, feeling more and more ill-at-ease by the turn the conversation was taking, "Besides, a couple of spells are really nothing big…"

"But you don't seem well, and you don't want to eat!" insisted Luffy, the last argument being worth every other hint in the world.

"Maybe I should examine you…" offered Chopper, a bit worried.

But as the little doctor was coming near her, Fuu faintly stepped back, running away from his pawns with a troubled look, which only made suspicion grow stronger.

"Hey!" called Zoro in a grumbling concerned tone. "What's the matter, seriously?"

"No… nothing, I'm fine!" Fuu protested with a less and less convincing tone, the conversation having unfortunately brought back to her mind the oppressing feeling that a black narrow well was waiting for her to climb down in its abysses, which was far worse than any anaemia.

And as she was slowly stepping back to keep out of Chopper's reach by fear of having the doctor examine her and determine the real cause of her state, Fuu finally bumped against the one standing right behind her.

Ace shot a glance at her, feeling her body unnoticeably trembling against his, as Fuu's breathing had resumed the unnatural controlled pace she usually had when having a claustrophobia crisis.

_Baka… _thought he while his heart was balancing between irritation and concern, _Considering how heavy her chest must feel right now, it's quite obvious she won't be able to eat, even by forcing herself… But she should have thought about a better excuse, tsk… Now everyone is worried, and it won't be long before they can pull the truth out of her… be it by examining her or pressing her with questions… Really, so annoying…_

And with shared intentions – a part of his heart earnestly concerned, while the selfish part of his heart was saying that he didn't want her to be unguarded and show her weaknesses in front of anyone else than himself – Ace decided that having himself a preference for gold over lunch would be a nice way out of trouble.

BAM. His hands fell on Fuu's shoulders, pulling her backwards out of Chopper's paws – the little reindeer being still determined to examine her – and he shot a confident smile to everyone.

"Okay, I'm part of the 'Gold Team' too, especially since lunch is not ready yet. That way we'll be serving you some treasure for dessert!" announced he with an enthusiastic tone, "And if we're doing the job alright, there shouldn't be any complaint about us not digging enough yesterday, right?"

Nami crooked a smile at the last comment, which was directed mainly to her since she had fought a bit with WhiteBeard's Second Commander on the topic a few hours before.

"Should be fine, indeed…" smirked she with a confident pose.

"Yeah!" shouted Luffy with an overjoyed expression, "If Ace is skipping lunch too, that means more food for us!"

BONG. Nami's fist had rung on her captain's head.

"BAKA! Of course not! We're going to keep them their shares." ranted she before turning back an glorious expression punctuated by Berry-shaped eyes towards the two volunteer workers, "Feel free to ask if you need anything while down there, huh…? But most important, bring us back lot of gold!"

"At your service!" grinned Ace while crooking a confident smile at the rest of the group and a knowing glance at Robin.

Meanwhile, Fuu was still under Ace's arms, a bit stunned by how quickly the situation had apparently been resolved, and inwardly feeling grateful to the one holding her and supporting her despite how childish it was from her to hide her situation to the others.

As everyone finally split up to go and take care of the various things to do – like cooking, cleaning, moving their stuff, bugging the cook to have more food, being ordered around to move the stuff, wondering how to transfer the magical bonfire without getting burnt, etc… – leaving Ace, Fuu and Robin near the gold shaft.

"So…" spoke Robin, breaking the silence which had momentarily fallen in the gallery, "Just like we discussed this morning, Fuu… Ace-san will be heating the rock, and you'll be giving him instructions on temperature depending on the metal consistency; then you'll be using your pistol to control the debit and shape the melted gold; finally I'll be taking care of the supply of buckets and bring them out of the well when they'll be full."

"S… sure…" Fuu agreed with a faint smile she had wanted dynamic – but had failed – while trying to forget the steel knot crushing her insides at the sight of the narrow rocky shaft.

Robin merely shot a glance at her, pausing on the pale cheeks of her friend's face, but didn't say anything. She just turned towards Ace to give him her directions.

"Ace-san, I'm counting on you to follow Fuu's instructions respecting to the heating… and also to be sure everything is fine on her end…!" added she with a conniving glance for WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

The insinuation made Ace smile a bit and he gave her a faint nod.

On her side, Fuu had slowly walked towards the edge of the well, trying to talk herself out of the anxiety which was growing inside her when looking at the dark hole whose bottom couldn't even be seen in the dim lighting of the mine gallery.

_Okay… Let's get it started! It's going to be okay… I'm going to be okay, especially considering the fact that it was my idea… It's fine, it's only six small metres… Even without my wings, I have no reason to feel trapped… It's some solid rock and Franky was the one who designed this shaft, so it's definitely fool-proof! It's fine, it's going to be okay… Everything is going to be okay, everyth…_

Fuu's train of thought gradually came to a stop when she felt a hand softly squeezing into hers: a warm and comforting hand which calmed her nearly instantly, making her repress a serene smile of gratefulness.

"Do you want me to make you go down first…?" offered Ace with a tender smile, lifting Fuu's hand with his towards the well, "Or do you prefer me to jump down first?"

"As… as you wish it…" calmly answered Fuu.

"So let's say 'Gentlemen first'…" softly teased Ace while gently letting go of her hand to swiftly and easily jump in the hole.

A faint thumping sound reached Fuu's ears, assuring her that Ace had safely reached the bottom, and some soft green flames suddenly appeared six metres below, their eerie and comforting firefly-like glow making Fuu's lips spread into a smile.

Amidst the floating lights, a pair of obsidian eyes was gazing intensely at her.

Fuu felt herself smile trustfully at the one who was waiting for her down there, his arms stretched in front of him ready to catch her. She gazed at his confident eyes and their light made her forget about the surrounding darkness. She closed her eyes to only remember them as she was breathing in deeply, and jumped to the front, her feet meeting emptiness.

And when she finally reopened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the crooked smile Ace was giving her while gently holding her against him.

"Thank you…!" whispered Fuu with a smile filled with gratefulness, her hands instinctively passing behind his neck to hug him as gently and strongly as she could ever feel, everlastingly happy for having trust him to catch her back.

A few seconds flew by… arms gradually tightening on both sides and drawing them closer to each other…

But the magical moment was broken when a beautiful arm sprouted from the wall just on their side.

TILT. Fuu startled at the sight, and looked with disbelief at the arms replicating themselves like a ladder along the rocky wall, Robin preparing the relay that will allow her to lift the weights out of the well, just like she had done in Skypiea in the cloud ground to go one level below.

While Ace was clicking his tongue, bitterly regretting the interruption, Fuu's usual embarrassed and independent personality came back at full speed. She quickly lifted herself out of his arms to land back on both feet on the ground, trying her best not to blush at the thought of what had happened, and even gave herself a couple of slaps on the cheeks to make her recover.

Trying to focus on the green fireflies rather than on the surrounding rock, she closed her eyes and casted the same 'spell' she had used on the bonfire, surrounding Ace's flames by a magical bubble to keep them alive and use them as a source of light.

Convinced that the uneasiness caused by claustrophobia will only last until she could get her mind focused on the task at hand, she then walked determinedly – as far as one small step could be called walking, considering the narrowness of the shaft and the fact that Ace and Robin's arm-ladder were already occupying a good half of the available space – towards the gold vein shining in the rock, and observed the metal inclusion with a seriousness.

She pointed out two places of the wall very close to the gold inclusion while asking Ace to put his hands there before sending his fire-power in.

Seeing her recovering her confidence so quickly and not panicking anymore, Ace sighed inwardly – shared between relief and a hint of disappointment – but did as she said, projecting his pyrotechnic energy in the wall to heat intensely the rock and its metallic content, inwardly happy not to be asked to heat the entire wall in one go – something he would have been definitely unable to do, fire being different than magma.

Fuu watched as the gold vein was starting to change consistency and instructed Ace to heat stronger, order that WhiteBeard's Second Commander had had no trouble in obeying, his body feeling way hotter than before since at the same moment, Fuu's petticoats had flew up on her legs as she was drawing her revolver from her satin holster.

And while Ace was cursing himself for having let his thoughts wander onto some unspeakable desires and was averting his eyes to try and hide a blush, Fuu softly bent over, coming closer to the wall and Ace, focusing her attention on the extremity of the gold vein which was melting unregularly, anxious of missing the point at which the extraction will begin.

"It's coming… just a bit more…" estimated she at seeing the gold changing consistency and starting to bump in a sticky way from the wall.

Ace shot a glance on his left, starting to think that 1,5 metre of diameter was in definitive quite small for two people – plus an army of duplicated arms – to stand next to each other, especially when one of them needed to keep his head cool not to mess up the extraction process and the second was the one messing up his head.

"Hum, yes… just like that…" murmured Fuu as if pacing with her words the debit of the melted gold, "But softer… Ace… a bit softer, please…"

DOKI. Ace bite forcibly his lower lip to try and chase the blood that had flushed brutally in his cheeks and his body at hearing Fuu whisper such an easy-to-misinterpret sentence in with what sounded to him like an all-too-tempting tone.

Meanwhile, Fuu slowly cocked her silver pistol, pulling the cylinder until the 'One' setting, and pressed the trigger softly without releasing it: DOMM, a small bubble of icy wind appeared at the end of the barrel, but without leaving the extremity of the revolver.

Fuu's body tensed as she was trying not to move abruptly, by fear of making the bubble burst with a false move. She breathed in, moving closer to the wall and Ace to position the pistol – and more importantly the bubble of icy wind – right under the point of extraction.

Meanwhile, one of the buckets supplied by Robin's arms had already been placed just under, ready to receive the gold.

"Ace…" mumbled Fuu, too focused on the shaky bubble at the extremity of her revolver to even dare raising her eyes towards him, "It's a bit delicate, since it's the first… so please listen to me, and move like I say…"

But the directive was completely useless, Ace's entire nervous extremities being already all too aware of Fuu's presence near him, and the rest of his senses on complete alert and ready to catch onto her slightest move or word.

"Ace…" murmured Fuu again, pursuing her explanation, "Send in your fire progressively, and hotter and hotter… but as soon as I tell you, you need to pull back instantly, so that it won't overflow…"

BAM. Fuu startled at hearing a huge thumping sound and cautiously raised her eyes towards her interlocutor: at barely thirty centimetres from her own, Ace's head had violently hit the rocky wall, forehead first and apparently on purpose.

"Ace…?" asked she with a surprised tone, "What the…?"

Ace made no answer and kept his eyes under the shadow of his hair, hoping to hide his beat-red face in the process, as he was repeatedly instructing his head to chill out if it didn't want to be sent flying against the rock again, while reminding his mind that Fuu's previous statements had most certainly NOT been said with the intention of switching him on and that he should therefore keep countenance.

"Ace…?" asked she with a worried tone at hearing no answer from him, bringing her face closer to his to try and discern his expression, "Are you… are you okay?"

"I… I heard you…" Ace finally mumbled while heaving a deep and low sigh to recover countenance but avoiding her gaze, "You want me to heat the rock enough for the gold to flow without discontinuity but without spilling out… I'll find the right balance, I promise…"

_I'm really starting to reach a critical point, tsk… _he thought to himself while ordering himself not to turn his head on the left, afraid that seeing Fuu's face so close to his would reactivate the fire under his skin.

At hearing the sulking grumble, Fuu frowned a bit and focused back on her revolver, half regretting to have worried over him for having hit his head.

As Ace was still cursing himself for having let his mind run wild on a couple of easy-to-misunderstand sentences, the gold finally reached fusion state.

"It's coming…" Fuu announced, giving to Ace the signal to keep the temperature constant at that very particular point.

The trickle of melted gold separated itself from the wall in a sticky way and slowly started to pour out. It entered the icy bubble at the extremity of Fuu's revolver and under the strength of the wind activating itself in the bubble, the metal curled up and accumulated in the centre of the bubble, aspiring the coldness of the icy wind in the process, before finally falling in the bucket at Fuu and Ace's feet, under the shape of a ball of pure solidified gold.

"Wow…" admitted Ace, too impressed by the method to keep on dwelling on his previous predicament.

"It… it worked!" giggled Fuu with an overjoyed smile at seeing that the process she had discussed with Robin was actually going on exactly as planned.

And with both workers focusing optimistically on their tasks and gradually forgetting their inner troubles, the same process repeated itself, the melted gold rolling into Fuu's icy bubbles and falling into the bucket once solidified.

Ace had found his cruising speed – or rather temperature – and was diligently propagating his fire power through the gold steam, understanding without trouble that if he were to stop, it would be really hard to resume the extraction.

Fuu was getting more used to her silver pistol and was now able to string several bubbles of icy wind in a row without bursting them by mistake.

After repeating this method multiple times, the first bucket was finally full with gold nugget resembling baseball balls, and Robin's replicated arms swiftly exchanged the bucket for another empty one, before slowly bringing back the recipient and its precious content to ground level.

Fuu and Ace grinned in satisfaction at hearing the ruckus above them growing into exclamations of joy and shouting voices among which they could both recognize the high-pitched and delighted tone of their mikan-haired navigator.

"Hihihi…" softly giggled Fuu at hearing some exclamations like 'So cool!' or 'We're rich!" whose provenance was as clear as if she had been standing in the gallery with her nakamas.

"Heehee…" chuckled Ace while recognizing the enthusiastic tone of his little brother among the overjoyed people commenting the first bucket content.

But without the opportunity to stop their work to join the feast, they both kept their laughter for themselves and focused back on their tasks: Fuu on the icy bubbles of her silver revolver, and Ace on keeping the temperature of the rock and gold constant.

"Ace! Fuu!" called a voice above them, make both workers to raise their head towards Luffy's distant and grinning face, "Are you doing fine down there?"

"Yep!" grinned Fuu without having to force a smile on her lips this time, since keeping herself busy with the gold extraction had a positive side-effect: leaving no time to her mind to dwell on the oppressing feeling of the narrow shaft.

"Keep it up, you two!" Nami shouted, the navigator having also reached the edge of the well, "The quality is perfect, so just extract more of it! Don't worry about how long it will take, but be sure to collect all of it!"

A huge drop of sweat appeared on Fuu and Ace's temple at hearing the interested encouragement.

"Robin, do you need more buckets?" Nami asked with Berry-shaped eyes at the thought of how much they could earn by filling all the buckets present with gold, "Do you want bags? Do you want…"

But the sound of Sanji calling everyone for lunch cut the talk short and on a few last cheering words, the pirates on the surface walked away from the shaft to enjoy their meal.

_Hihihi… Seems like it as a good idea to stay longer in these mines, after all! _Fuu thought to herself with a laugh. _The treasure hunting adventure sounds like a success!_

And the work went on, more and more gold balls accumulating in buckets that Robin was bringing out of the well.

The rocky shaft was beginning to get really hot, Ace's fire having finally projected through the rock despite its low heat conductivity, and Fuu was now sweating a lot. She was regularly passing her free hand on her forehead to wipe away some beads of sweat.

And as Ace was starting to shot her a couple of glances, apparently aware that a non-Fire-Logia was not as resistant to heat as himself, Fuu started to feel pressured and finally decided to use a 'spell' of resistance to fire and heat on herself, hoping to discreetly escape any question… plan which failed.

"Fuu…" called Ace, at seeing without much trouble a faint red glow surrounding the hazelnut-haired girl and sipping into her flesh, "Just tell me if you want to stop…"

"Huh?" paused Fuu, quite surprised by Ace's offer.

"If this method is still making you use your power, it would be better to stop right now and rather use your spell to fill the buckets with gold…" explained he in a mixture of amusement and seriousness.

"Well… I had already thought about it yesterday… creating gold, I mean…but that just won't do…" softly laughed Fuu while sending an amused smile to her interlocutor.

"Really…?" retorted Ace with a jesting tone and a crooked smile, "I don't think our navigator would find something to say against it… I'm already surprised she's never considered using your power to fill in her wallet…"

"Hihihi… Quite true…" agreed Fuu while imagining Nami's expression in front of a huge rock suddenly transformed into gold and deciding to exploit her to create entire mountains of it, "But Luffy would say it's no fun…!"

"Quite true…" agreed in turn Ace, laughing inwardly at imagining Luffy's sulking expression when he was finding something boring, "But that could be our little secret…"

"Hum… But I also find it more fun to extract it rather than creating it by magic…" countered Fuu with a poised smile.

"More fun but more tiring…" mocked Ace with one of his usual crooked smile, "Come on, just admit it… that you'd rather be up there enjoying a nice lunch than sweating on something like that…"

"What?" snapped Fuu, deeply vexed to be put in the category of girls not wanting to dirty their hands, "Of course not! It's…"

But an unfortunate grumbling noise betrayed Fuu, making her blush with shame at realizing that, now that her claustrophobia crisis had ended, the knot in her stomach had loosened, leaving the latter rumble with indignation for not having received much food for the last 48 hours.

_Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! How embarrassing! _She thought as she avoided contact with Ace's eyes, very embarrassed of having had her stomach make such a loud noise.

"Hum hum…" smirked Ace while arching an eyebrow, "Seems like someone is agreeing with me… you've lost!"

"I haven't lost at all!" retorted Fuu by reflex, "It's really nothing, and…"

But another unfortunate grumbling noise interrupted the conversation once more… but this time, the one to blush and avert his eyes was a certain Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet.

"Ooh…?" Fuu said with a small smirk while trying to imitate Ace's teasing tone, "Seems like we're on equal terms, now… Or could it be that you're the one getting tired?"

"Hey! Who do you think you're talking to?" countered Ace with a playfully arrogant tone.

_To someone the whole world would have trouble imagining earning honestly his life as a gold miner, hihihi… _thought Fuu while laughing to herself at imagining the expression of the Marines if they were to learn that the all-so-wanted Gol D. Ace was using his Devil Fruit power to extract gold in all honesty, even having a registration number for that.

Ace gazed at the giggling face of his interlocutor with a smile, and was obliged to recognize that he was enjoying seeing her smiles uncommonly more than her frightened and weakened state, despite the former only bringing fights and debates while the latter was bringing her in his arms.

Ace's lips stretched in a soft cunning smile.

"But if you insist, it's true I might get tired, in the end…" added he with a jesting tone, "So it might be worth asking for compensation, right…?"

Fuu carefully raised her eyes towards him, her both hands still busy with her revolver and the gold stream.

"A compensation, huh…?" paused she with an amused smile, "I don't think Nami will let you ask for more than your share of the gold… and our shares are usually quite unequal already, hihihi…"

"Oh, I wasn't thinking about her…" chuckled Ace with a teasing expression, "Since you were the one to decide to work instead of using the easy magical way for extracting the gold, it's only fair to ask YOU for compensation."

"You want MY share of the gold, then…?" tilted Fuu, perplexed by the request but not really attached to money – in this world even more than on the real one.

"Heehee, I wasn't thinking about the gold!" mocked Ace while staring deep into his interlocutor's eyes, "I'll be satisfied with a kiss as compensation…"

"Wh… WHAT?" nearly chocked Fuu, before averting her eyes in panic to focus back on the trickle of gold which was dangerously missing the icy bubble because she had nearly dropped the silver pistol in shock at hearing Ace's declaration.

"A kiss…" repeated Ace slowly, without averting his eyes from his interlocutor.

"I… I heard… b… but…" exclaimed Fuu, extremely embarrassed and feeling her cheeks burn furiously, and not because of the surrounding enflamed rocks.

"I think it's quite fair, considering the situation…" taunted Ace while moving his face closer to hers.

"Th… it's… that's…" mumbled Fuu, searching for an answer but her mind had unfortunately blanked out when her eyes had met the obsidian pupils gazing intensely at her.

Fuu felt that she was gradually losing control over what she was doing as Ace's face was slowly coming closer to hers. She felt her cheeks burn intensely at each centimetre Ace's lips were progressing towards hers… and she felt hers eyes stare deep into his, as if hoping to find an answer in them.

Ace was gazing at the big troubled amber eyes which were apparently awaiting their fate without running away from it, unlike what she had done at the Saloon. He couldn't help but want and see for himself if it meant she was giving him her consent – even though he had only planned at first to tease her a little as a payback for the embarrassing misunderstanding from before.

BAM. A soft thumbing sound soon followed by a strong burnt-gum smell instantly broke the spell, and both interlocutors lowered their heads precipitately.

They both panicked at seeing that Fuu's embarrassment had – fairly – affected her hands too, and therefore had made her lost the next icy bubble, leaving the melted gold free to fall in the black gum bucket used as a recipient just below. And the aforementioned bucket had not appreciated receiving metal in fusion and had – quite fairly – complained by emitting a strong smell of burning.

"Waaaahhh!" panicked Fuu while actively trying to catch back the still-flowing gold trickle in a new bubble of icy wind, while from the other hand she was sending some water bubbles to drown the burnt part of the bucket.

And when she finally brought back her eyes on her interlocutor, it was only to blush back forcefully at remembering the situation they were in, a couple of seconds before.

"I can wait for the work to be finished, or course…" specified Ace with one of his usual provocative smiles, "For my healing kiss, that is…"

TILT. Fuu's eyes widened at hearing the last part of the comment, and her face crumbled as she started cursing herself for having imagined that Ace was talking about a real kiss while – of course – one of the kisses she was using as a vector for her healing 'spells' was way more rational a claim and way more natural a compensation when a task was exhausting.

"S… sure!" Fuu finally managed to answer but avoided looking straight at her interlocutor, "I'll heal you if you're getting tired…"

"That sounds comforting…" mocked Ace while forcing a smile, although he was sulking in his mind for having been forced to change the nature of his claim due to the situation having escaped him and his pride not allowing him to admit his failure.

While Fuu was focusing all her attention back on the wind bubbles of her revolver, trying her best to forget about the embarrassing episode, Ace also focused back on his work, sighing to himself at the thought that he just missed the opportunity to clear up some things – things that had been stirred up by the comments of a black-haired archaeologist several hours before, and had been comforted a bit by the absence of denial of an hazelnut-haired girl some minutes ago.

**

* * *

A COUPLE OF HOURS AFTERWARDS**

The extraction of the gold had kept on at a steady rhythm, and Robin's duplicated arms – wearing Sanji's kitchen gloves to protect her skin from the scorching heat of the rock – had brought back to the surface the fruit of Fuu and Ace's hard work.

At first, the fusing over the newly-extracted gold and the eerie shape of the nuggets had caused the same commotion as usual, and the two workers were still laughing up their sleeves at hearing the echo of the chaotic ruckus going on six metres above them. But of course, even Nami's enthusiasm had ended up quieting down with time, and at the fifteenth bucket, no more exclamations could be heard, even if faint rumbling noises were attesting that the Mugiwaras had found some other noisy occupation.

Time had also eased the atmosphere between Fuu and Ace, and the embarrassing episode had for long been forgotten as they were working together to finish to extract the gold.

And finally, the gold steam run dry, leaving Fuu with a half-made ball of gold floating in one of her icy bubbles.

"Finished!" exclaimed she with a relieved and happy expression.

Ace slowly put off his hands from the rocky wall and stretched his shoulders, the muscles of his back starting to get sore for having stayed so long in one position.

And while Robin's arms were lifting up the last bucket and its content out of the shaft, the two amateur-prospectors wiped away beads of perspiration from their forehead with their arms, completely in a sweat. Because even if one was a Fire Logia and the other one had a Fire Resistance 'spell' on, it had only avoided them to end up as roasted meat cooked on the stone and hadn't spared them to feel the impact of the surrounding heat.

"Phew… I think I'll ask Nami to make rain with her ClimaTact…" sighed Fuu while remembering how useful the trick that Nami had learnt on Weatheria was useful for that kind of situation, "I really need to shower…"

"Hum, I agree… You're all sticky!" mocked Ace while letting his hand run on the girl's neck, peeling off a hair-curl soaked in sweat from it.

"Hey!" blushed furiously Fuu while catching back her hair-lock from Ace's hand with a sulking expression.

"Self-conscious…?" teased Ace while crooking a smile to his flushed interlocutor.

"Of course…" mumbled Fuu, deeply vexed and ashamed at the same time, "I know I'm not presentable right now… so no need to rub salt on it…!"

"Presentable…?" repeated Ace with a teasing smile, "Hum… I rather find it quite… alluring...!"

DOKI. At hearing the last word, Fuu had blushed two more shades of red and had raised her fist to knock quiet the _damned playboy_ without any tact who was still teasing her with that kind of comment.

But Ace easily intercepted the hit in a laugh, capturing her wrist in his hand to move her fist away and pull her towards him.

"Really tempting…!" murmured he near Fuu's ears, as if speaking to himself, before asking in a louder and enthusiastic voice, "What about the kiss?"

TILT. The sudden closeness and the remembrance of the 'compensation topic' made Fuu blush even more – which was apparently still possible – and she struggled harder.

"Ugh!" grumbled she while seeing that her efforts were fruitless, "You… you don't seem tired enough to need it!"

"Cheater…" provoked Ace in an _annoying_ crooked smile, "You had promised to heal me afterwards, since it was a tiresome job!"

But despite all Ace's claims on his exhaustion state, his strength wasn't diminished at all comparing to normal, and he had effortlessly pulled Fuu onto him, easily countering her struggle. And Fuu could only shake her wrists fruitlessly in Ace's hands, desperate to leave his arms and to run away from the contact of his built-up bust dripping with sweat, by fear of letting something embarrassing happen again if the closeness, the warmth of his body and the unbearable appeal of his seductive smirk were making her lose control of the situation again.

"Please…" asked Ace with one of his most provocative and self-confident grins, "You had promised…"

_Ugh! He'll definitely pay for that… this damned playboy! _inwardly screamed Fuu, bright scarlet but knowing she had no escape route, since she was the type of people who never came back on their promises.

And while trying not to let her eyes meet his, she closed her eyelids to focus on gathering her Devil Fruit power and inwardly whispered the incantation of her healing 'spell', hoping to get rid of her embarrassing actual predicament as soon as possible. When she felt her lips shining with the customary silver glow, she slowly opened her eyes again.

The first thing she then saw was a pair of obsidian eyes intensely and straight-forwardly gazing at her, while their owner had softly let go of her wrist to tenderly seize her face in his hands.

_Wh…? Ace…?_

But Fuu only felt her gaze drowning in Ace's eyes, as his face was getting gradually closer and a mysterious force was irremediably attracting her towards him.

She felt herself silently, obediently following this force, soon feeling Ace's breathe onto her silver lips, when suddenly:

"ACE! FUU!" shouted the easily recognisable voice of Luffy from above, "Nami said we can have a party tonight! A banquet, a banquet, YEEPEE!"

FLASH. Fuu's silver magical aura instantly imploded in a burst of light, breaking the spell – literally and figuratively – and the hypnotic face-to-face between the two pirates.

Millimetres turned into centimetres as Ace was slowly pulling back, slowly letting go of Fuu's face to turn towards the spoilsport who was dancing near the edge of the well, too happy by the piece of news to see the dark glare his brother was sending him.

"Coming…" sighed Ace while swiftly jumping up to land near his brother, giving him a punch on the head along the way to teach him to stop having such an extraordinary _bad_ timing.

And while Fuu was trying to breathe normally again, at the same time relieved, disappointed and ashamed – since she hadn't managed to elucidate which feeling was the strongest – Robin's hand softly poked her on the shoulder to show her the ladder of arms the archaeologist had created to help her friend getting out of the shaft.

"Thanks, Robin…" Fuu muttered with an outburst of pride at thinking that despite him having played with her like that, Ace had still abandoned her down here to go and fight with his brother.

And when she had finally managed to climb up again to the surface of the mine gallery – vexation and pride having fortunately kept her mind busy enough to avoid another claustrophobia crisis – another problem was awaiting her.

"_**Just whistle while you work,  
And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place,  
So hum a merry tune,  
It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace" **_were singing the Mugiwaras while tidying and leaving camp.

But the most astonishing part was that they weren't the only ones cleaning around and putting back their things in the bags: a small regiment of forest animal whose origins were unknown were also there and helping them out.

Fuu's mouth gasped in disbelief at seeing Nami working with some bluebirds to put the gold into bags and tying up them, Sanji shouting at a some fawns and squirrels not to lick the dishes to make them clean but bring him water instead, Usopp suggesting some rabbits to hide the recently-gathered dust in the mouse hole in the gallery wall – not even wondering why they would bother dusting the ground of a mountain gallery nor what a mouse hole could be doing in the wall of such gallery.

"_**Just whistle while you work,  
Put on that grin and start right in to whistle loud and long,  
Just hum a merry tune,  
Just do your best and take a rest and sing yourself a song" **_kept on singing the Mugiwaras, once in a while accompanied by the chirping of the birds.

"Oh my…" could only say Fuu of utter bewilderment.

_Okay… We REALLY need to solve this paradox… QUICKLY!_


	34. Story V, Quest, TwoFaces West 1

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

Two-Faces West ~Part.1~

…

**NEW WORLD, EL DORADO, HIGH STREET**

The Mugiwaras were peacefully – rather boastfully, especially for three of them – walking down El Dorado main street after having left at the ranch the horses they had rent to bring them back from the mines.

Dragging a bit behind everyone, Fuu was lost in her thoughts, trying to put some order among the recent events.

_Is it fine that way… for the Gold Core…? _thought she while remembering their leaving the mines.

**EL DORADO, GOLD MINES, A COUPLE OF HOURS BEFORE**

"WHAT…?" had shouted Nami while slamming her hand on the desk of the Register Office, "What do you mean you need to keep the gold we found?"

"It can't help it, Missy… That's the rule. But don't worry, it'll stay safe in the Sheriff's office for the night and we'll return the rest to you tomorrow." grumbled the old prospector who had registered their discovery – an amount of gold which had made every miner around and nearly all the other inspectors pass out of pure bewilderment.

"I heard that part already, but WHY would I need to trust you with my gold for a full day?" exclaimed Nami, making her nakamas sweat-drop a little at the mention of 'her' gold and not 'their' gold.

"I told you it's the rule, Missy…" sighed the old prospector, "We told you about it the day you registered, since we're keeping 10% of everything you're finding as taxes."

"WHAT…..?" exclaimed Nami with an air of absolute refusal, for having of course erased the undesired piece of information from her memory when they had registered two days ago, "10%...? No way, that's too much!"

The old prospector was shaking his head in a weary expression and heaved a deep sigh.

"Whazza the matta'?" asked a low voice with a very strong accent.

Nami raised her eyes towards the strong-built yellow-haired Sheriff who had approached at hearing some reclamation.

"I'm saying I don't want to trust you people with the gold!" repeated Nami, not the least impressed by the stature of the law enforcer in front of her, "And what's the big idea with taking 10%? It's robbery!"

_Sigh… _heaved the rest of Mugiwaras and Fuu and Ace at hearing Nami lecturing someone about robbery.

"Tsk… First that damn' McDuck and now that chick…" muttered the Sheriff in an annoyed tone, before declaring in a louder voice, "That's the law, littl' miss. That's the tax ya need to pay for us to honour the toll. Ya wouldn't wanna cause trouble with the island lord, yeah…?"

TILT. Ace immediately took the hint, and before Nami could retort with one of her gold-comes-first-you-won't-impress-me-with-threats comments, he had stepped in and snatched the mikan-haired navigator away.

After a few minutes of a private talk between the both of them, since the rest of Mugiwaras had debated for few seconds if they needed to take part in the discussion before concluding on a 'no' – indeed, Fuu was still too embarrassed around Ace, Robin had reasonably estimated that Ace didn't need help, Zoro wanted to avoid any money talk with Nami, and the rest of the crew was definitely not interested – Ace and Nami came back to tell the Register Office that they accepted their conditions.

"Provided you'll return the favour, of course…" grinned Nami for Ace as she was signing the attestation stipulating how much gold she was trusting the Office and the Sheriff with – and which could also be used as a warranty for paying the Saloon bill in case Luffy's appetite would exceed Nami's budget.

"Sure…" chuckled Ace with a confident smile.

"You should be wary of her, when she's talking about interests on a debt…" screeched Zoro as an advice for WhiteBeard's Commander.

Nami shot a dark glare at the swordsman before recovering the signed attestation.

"You'd better take good care of it and not mess up with the quantity…" advised she with a knowing smirk for the Sheriff, "I would know…"

_Of course she would know… _inwardly sighed the rest of the group, perfectly knowing that Nami was even more precise than a scale to estimate in a single glance the quantity of gold present in a bag.

"F'course, little miss…" grinned the Sheriff, "The gold'a safe with me until tomorrow! It gotta be quit' unlucky if som'thing happened though you were really lucky to find that much gold in a day, ya know…"

TILT. Zoro's eyes narrowed.

"Really lucky…" insisted the Sheriff with an eerie content smile which made Nami frown an unimpressed expression as she wasn't seeing the point of him seeming happy/lucky for their discovery while he wasn't going to touch a single nugget in the process.

"See you tomorrow, missy." greeted the old prospector of the Register Office, an honest smile on his lips as he was happy to have solved the problem and was now eager to move on to the next miners group.

And on this note, the little group of pirates headed towards the sister-ranch near the mines, planning to recover the horses they had rented for a round-trip to go back to town.

But upon reaching the ranch, Fuu caught glance of the silhouette of the one she'd been looking for ever since their arrival at the mine.

"W…WAIT!" shouted she while dashing forward at full speed, leaving behind her the rest of her nakamas with puzzled faces at seeing her sprint like that without prior warning.

"Hum…?" paused the anthropomorphic duck carrying a dusty prospection bag on his shoulder when turning back at seeing the hazelnut-haired girl coming his way.

"Pl… please wait!" asked Fuu at arriving at his level, "Are you going back to town?"

"What do you want, girl?" retorted her interlocutor while narrowing his eyes in a suspicious frown, "Time is money, and I'm not planning on losing any…"

_Oh my… _inwardly sighed Fuu at hearing the already-expected comment.

"Then do you want to discuss about it in town? We could talk about it with a drink…" tried Fuu while trying her best to be accommodating.

TILT. The duck frown even more deeply and turned heels to walk away.

"I'm not interested in tavern girls' offers, so get lost!" screeched the misanthropic gold prospector.

TILT. At hearing herself called a tavern girl, Fuu's patience started crumbling.

"I'm not a tavern girl…" retorted she in a frosty tone while overcoming the duck and coming to stand right in front of him with a vexed expression, "I just had an offer for you so…"

"Doesn't matter…" dusted away her interlocutor while bypassing her, "I know what the likes of you want, and I have no business to discuss with people who are only coveting my gold! So leave me alone!"

"H… hey, wait!" panicked Fuu at seeing him walking away and starting running after him, starting to feel quite annoyed to be ignored, "I haven't even told you about the offer yet, and…"

"Stop bugging me and making me lose my time!" hammered the angry – even angrier than usual for an unknown reason – duck while glaring at her and trying to bypass her once more, "I know better than getting scammed by a pretty girl with no moral. Now, get lost!"

SNAP. The last statement had definitely infuriated Fuu pass the limit of what her manners would accept, and her nakamas could thus admire from the side-lines one of the rare moments during which she lost her temper.

"Wow…" paused Luffy with a gasping expression, "Fuu can argue with someone, shishishi…"

"I agree it's really surprising…" assented Nami with a similar perplexed expression.

"It's true, I've never seen her being angry at someone before…" agreed Chopper while polling his memory.

"Except with Hiken, heehee…" laughed Franky with a conniving glance for their second guest.

"No, for Fuu, Ace is special, so it doesn't count." remarked Luffy in a simple statement, not even realising the chain of reactions caused by his declaration and its innuendo.

"Regardless of this 'special' case, I agree it is a rare sight to see her argue with people. But I just believe it's because it's extremely hard to find a topic on which she would want to fight…" smiled Robin while inwardly trying to remember if some fussy memories she had of Fuu defending Ohara scholars against the CP9 were real or the result of a weird dream.

"Hum… it's because you've never spoken with her about gallantry or the role of women in society…" remarked Sanji while dragging on his cigarette.

"Yeah, she can be quite stubborn on that…" nodded Zoro while crossing his arms at the recollection of the only 'talk' he had had with the hazelnut-haired girl on the topic.

SHIN. The fact that Sanji and Zoro were somehow agreeing on something made everyone's focus converge towards them.

"W… wait a minute, Sanji-kun…" interrupted Nami with a bewildered expression, "It means you actually… fought… verbally with Fuu?"

"We can say that… though I would never step as low as to argue with creatures as divine as women…" smiled Sanji with an expression of adoration, "It's just that Fuu-chan had always been reluctant to accept my offers for making her little cocktails or sweets, so one day we were forced to talk about it…"

"She doesn't want the food you're preparing for her?" blinked Luffy in disbelief, "But why? For us, it's so hard to get food, and you gave it to her and she doesn't want it?"

"Hum… I remember one day Fuu saying she didn't want privileges and that she could take care of herself…" added Usopp while scratching his head to poll his memory.

"Same here…" agreed Franky with a serious nod, "She often says she can do things herself… even when she can't, heehee…"

"I don't understand her!" exclaimed Nami in a perplexed tone, "Even if she can indeed do it herself, if the guys are offering to do it for her, she should let them do!"

"I think that's precisely the problem…" hinted Robin with a serious yet amused expression.

"Come on, Robin, that's nothing like being useless in battle, here!" lectured Nami with a still not convinced expression, "Here it's just a nice favour Sanji-kun is doing us because we're girls and he's a gentleman! Usually, women are treated as less important, especially in pirate crews, so what is she complaining about?"

"Well…" paused Robin with a shared smile, "Maybe she doesn't want any privilege for the simple fact of having been born a woman…"

"Weird…" frowned Nami who had been used to deal with both advantages and inconvenient of being a woman ever since she was born, "Anyone would know you have to make use of everything you have to make your path in life! It's not like someone else is going to protect you and create a place for you in the world. Not everyone has the same chances and you have to deal with it! Why would she think she can manage differently?"

"Maybe Fuu is coming from a place where people are treated equally…" supposed Robin, her hand resting on her chin in a deep-in-thought pose, "And therefore she has different values than us…"

SHIN. A short silence welcomed the suggestion.

_Just what kind of place is she coming from…? _wondered with more or less interest the whole of the group, a doubtful drop of sweat appearing on their temple while their minds was running wild to imagine what kind of society Fuu could come from – imagination ranging from a place where citisens were a weird mix of man and woman to a place where the king and the thief were exchanging clothes once a month…

"Tsk… I don't know how it is on the island she's from, but it's true she really hates it when you make difference between girl and guy in front of her…" added Zoro while remembering the only time he had been taken aback by Fuu when she had lectured him hard-core for not making the difference between her being weak – statement with which she agreed too – and her being a girl.

"Ooh, so in the end, our komusume is kinda feminist, hum…?" estimated Franky while massaging his chin with an amused and curious smile.

"Then could it be that Fuu-san is refusing to show me her panties for such a reason?" wondered Brook, who had always had trouble befriending the hazelnut-haired girl because of his repeated perverted offers.

"You asked her WHAT?" tilted Ace at suddenly appearing behind the gentleman skeleton with a threatening forced smile and a fist ready to burn.

And while the bystanders were abandoning the feminist matter to try and calm down Ace and in a lesser measure Sanji, the conversation had turned quite frenzied between the usually-calm girl and the anthropomorphic duck.

"If you're an honest person, just go and earn money with your hard work!" was throwing a tantrum the gold prospector, "Girls should find themselves some honourable occupations instead of trying to attract people in saloons to scam them!"

"What the…?" was eructed Fuu, inwardly cursing the creators of the duck for being from the generation where girls were quiet and docile housewives with few other prospects in life, "I don't care where you're from, but stop thinking that the world should turn the way you're used to! Girls too can choose the life they want! And should I remind you of a really nice golden-haired girl who IS taking care of a saloon? What about Miss Goldie?"

SHIN. A small moment of silence fell on the conversation, as Fuu's interlocutor was receiving the blow of seeing his only weak-point used against him.

"I warn you, girl…" finally screeched he in a really low and threatening voice, "If you're planning on using this argument to extort me gold, you…"

"I'm not here to extort you anything! I do not care about your gold and I'm not a thief!" countered Fuu with an angry tone.

SHIN. The duck's expression softened a bit in surprise, as he was analysing the last sentence.

"So what is it that you want, girl?" asked he in a suspicious tone.

"I… I need this talisman you have and which is called Gold Core." was finally able to explain Fuu, after having recovered some calm.

"This strange golden stone a Native gave me? Why do you want it?" asked the prospector with an interested expression, "Is it worth a lot of money? Is it the lead towards a forgotten treasure?"

"No, none of that…" sighed Fuu while repressing a laugh at all the adventures she's read about this duck and which had often began with a weird object leading to a fantastic treasure.

"So why do you need it?" asked again the gold prospector, "I'm not planning on giving it up for nothing… it was given to me and it might be useful for something, so I never know…"

_Yes, it's very useful, but not for you… _inwardly sighed Fuu at trying to find an argument to convince her interlocutor.

"Oy, Fuu, we should get going!" suddenly called Nami's voice as she was walking towards the ranch renting desk.

"I'm coming!" answered Fuu before going back to her business proposal, but only to discover that her interlocutor had walked away from her, also to reach the ranch.

"W… wait!" called Fuu, wanting to resume the previous conversation, "I really need this Gold Core!"

"That's not my business, girl." answered the duck, "I told you I won't give it away, and I don't have time to chat with you anymore, time is money…"

_Grr… No! No way! Come on, don't walk away now that I've finally been able to find you! I need this Gold Core! If time is money, then I…_

"I… I offer you five dollars for this talisman!" blurted out Fuu, too much in panic to focus and offer something different.

SHIN. The duck had stopped.

Long seconds of silence flew by, making Fuu wonder what impact her offer had had on her interlocutor.

"Fifteen!" announced the gold prospector when finally turning back to face the hazelnut-haired girl.

"Ah, hum…" stammered Fuu, quite surprise to see him beginning negotiations.

"NO WAY!" suddenly interrupted a feminine voice, "Seven!"

And before Fuu would react, Nami had appeared on her left with a very determined expression, and started debating heatedly on the price of the Gold Core.

_Oh my… _thought the rest of the group at seeing their navigator fighting over the price with the anthropomorphic duck.

And a couple of minutes later on…

CLAP. The gold prospector had slapped in Fuu's hand in a friendly way.

"Deal!" said he while looking at her, "Nine dollars eighty-seven and a ginger ale!"

"S… sure…" agreed Fuu with a puzzled expression, her mind still blurry and lost by the turmoil of words and negotiations which had engulfed her, but the feeling of the agreeing clap still lingering in her hand.

"But you'll need to wait until tomorrow to get it." specified the duck with a sneer at the remembrance, "The Sheriff took it along my gold for the inspection, tsk…"

"What…? Bu… but why?" exclaimed Fuu, a bit surprised and baffled by the piece of news.

"Power abuse!" ranted the gold prospector, "Just because I refused to let them take my gold, he wanted to make me pay for it…"

"I … I see…" paused Fuu, a huge drop of sweat appearing on her forehead as she was imagining without difficulty the infamous stingy duck rebelling against the tax in a way even more vehement than Nami's, and the Sheriff asking him in exchange to quiet down and hand other one of his belongings in punishment.

"So just remind me of it tomorrow." concluded her interlocutor while ringing the cow-boy in charge of renting the horses, "The price is set, so don't try and make it go down tomorrow. The deal is for nine dollars eighty-seven and a ginger ale!"

"Sure…" smiled Fuu, shared between relief of seeing the business done and the bewilderment of noticing that it had been concluded for such a low price while the prospector had been so recalcitrant at first.

And while Nami and the duck were shaking hands with a light of mutual respect shining in their eyes for having found a worthy rival in negotiation, Fuu was left with the feeling of having had the situation completely escape her.

_He accepted… For such a picky yet cheap price… Wait, does it mean he would have accepted for any price? It's just strange… I mean, it's just nine dollars, now that I think about it… Definitely not much, even though that was the first price which crossed my mind… Well, I'll just pay him the nine something dollars tomorrow, and… dollars, DOLLARS? Oh nooooooooo! How could I say such a stupid thing?_

_Stupid, stupid, stupid… How could I mention a currency not existing in this world? Did… did the others heard it?_

And with a very apprehensive look, Fuu turned back to see that her comment had indeed had some impact on her nakamas, and that all of them had been discussing what 'dollars' could be ever since she had uttered the word, Nami having joined the group after the duck had left for the renting desk.

_Oh no… What a jinx… Sigh, what am I going to explain them if they…_

"Say, Fuu…" called Nami, the most interested of the lot in knowing what kind of precious thing could be used in an exchange, "What is a 'dollar' and how much is it worth?"

_Bingo! _sighed Fuu at the perfect timing of her friend in asking her the question she wanted to avoid, _And also… she actually managed to negotiate a price for a currency she doesn't know anything about? I'm really really impressed…_

Fuu paused a second on her friend's face, which was imperceptibly turning into a Berry-shaped-eyed eager expression with an easy-to-guess agenda.

_I can't tell them it was – well, still is – the money used in the Far West at the time of gold rushes, can I…_

"It… it's a currency… not used here… but that can still interest a little number of people…" mumbled Fuu while trying to feel if her numismatic explanation was going to earn her some spoiler slashes or if it was fine, "But it doesn't have any value except for this handful of people…"

"Oh, I see…" sulked Nami with a disappointed look, before turning towards the renting desk too, to claim the way back of their horse renting contract.

_And now that I think about it… Where am I going to find these dollars? It's not like anyone else from this world has some… and also, creating fake money is a crime… _thought she with a huge drop of guilty sweat appearing on her temple, _Hum… or maybe, since it's not a real money on Grand Line, then it's not really crime… I won't be perturbing the Five Blues economy by creating five dollars, will I? Besides, I'm sure our dear duck won't even make them circulate and will keep them preciously for when he will have a huge safe to keep them and swim in them… Hum…_

But her train of thoughts came to an end at seeing one of her nakamas approach.

"So, did you get this object you need, you and your brother?" asked Ace with a curious tone.

"Hum, only tomorrow, but…" began Fuu while turning her head towards him, before unconsciously freezing.

TILT. Ace's eyes fell on her, wondering why she had stopped talking, and he couldn't help but smiling faintly in victory at seeing his interlocutor apparently enthralled by him.

Fuu's amber eyes seemed distant but mesmerised.

Her cheeks had the faint glow of a reminiscent blush.

Her face was openly turned towards him, as if still hesitant because of what had happened during their last face-to-face.

"Yes…?" asked he in a seducing tone while bringing his face a bit closer to hers, knowingly reinforcing the spell he knew had bound his interlocutor.

The chime of his whispering voice made Fuu lose focus even more, and she gazed absent-mindedly at Ace's face, at his obsidian eyes which seemed so serious, at his lips which she had nearly felt on hers a mere hour before, in the darkness of this mining shaft.

Ace's smile grew in a satisfied smirk at realising Fuu's defence had started wavering in such an obvious way, and Luffy's words from a bit before made him more confident in trusting that his wishes were turning into reality, in the end.

HIIIIIIII. The sudden neighing of the horses prepared by the rancher made Fuu recover focus, and she stared at Ace, as if trying to realise what her situation was.

Ace crooked a smile at her, not backing of, and she blushed furiously at suddenly realising how close they were from each other and how confident Ace looked when gazing at her.

And while the rancher was giving instructions to the Mugiwaras for not getting lost and reaching town safely, Fuu averted her eyes precipitately and walked away from Ace, her cheeks still red and her mind rushing at full speed.

**BACK TO PRESENT**

_Hum… Forget about the Gold Core, it will be fine, I trust his word! Our dear duck might be stingy, but he's not dishonest… So I'll definitely recover the Core tomorrow…_

_The problem is somewhere else… _thought Fuu with a tingling feeling in her chest at gazing at the back of the person in front of her, a back which would normally bear a large purple Jolly Roger but which was for now covered by a sand-coloured shirt.

_I think something is wrong with me… Somehow, I lose focus, and in the end, I let Ace toy around with me a lot these days… Why? What's wrong with me? And also, why do I feel like he's becoming more and more insistent with his jokes? What are these serious looks and teasing smirks for? Grr… Damned playboy! I know he just enjoys toying with me, so it's stupid to think he might be serious… but why is it that I'm still not used to it? Why can't I dismiss him as usual? What crossed my mind just before when looking into his eyes…?_

_Just because of claustrophobia, I agree I let him in a bit easily… but it doesn't mean anything, I shouldn't lower my guard just because he comforted me a bit – well, a lot – and I shouldn't think he's a gentleman just because he didn't try anything on me when I feel asleep on him… Waa… Waaaaaaahhhh! I need to stop thinking about it! It was a careless mistake! I must make it clear to him that I wasn't… that I'm not… Grr… I don't want him to believe that I… I… Grr, I'm NOT one of his admirers fainting at a single smile from him! I'm NOT a perverted fan-girl dreaming of unspeakable relationships with a manga character either! No way in hell I would let them put me in one of these baskets, grr… I'll show him, and I'll show Clow too!_

And finally fixed onto a new resolution, Fuu deeply breathed in and jogged a bit to meet up with the rest of her nakamas – who had of course distanced her as she was dragging behind, lost in her thoughts.

"I can't wait!" was already salivating Luffy with an overjoyed expression, "Meat! Lots of meat!"

"We have the certificate from the mines, so don't worry and order everything you want!" smiled Nami in a similar enthusiastic expression.

CLONG. A lot of jaws unhooked at hearing such a statement from their stingy money-lover navigator, but everyone finally saw their usual Nami hadn't disappeared really far away at seeing the face she was making when gazing at the number written on the gold certificate – an expression shared between impatience and greedy satisfaction.

"YEEPEE!" exclaimed Luffy, Chopper and Usopp while jumping of joy, while the rest of the group was also rejoicing, but less noisily.

_Hihihi… _smiled Fuu as the contagious good-humour of the trio was easing her previous concerns.

"A party, a party! A banquet, a banquet!" were still dancing around the three easy-going pirates while walking down the High Street towards the place which was going to answer their needs.

TILT. Fuu's eyes widened at finally realising their destination, and she froze in front of the Saloon, a deep blush of shame flushing in her face as she was remembering the scene Ace and she had caused in this very same establishment barely two days before.

"Fuu-chan… something wrong?" asked Sanji in a concerned tone.

"Must… must it be the Saloon…?" muttered Fuu in a very embarrassed tone while cursing herself for not having realised before it was the only place around where they could party.

"Hum/Huh?" tilted everyone while turning towards her with puzzled faces.

But too late… Luffy had already pushed wide open the revolving doors, and a majority of the cow-boy present in the Saloon had already turned their heads towards the newcomers.

SHIN. A little moment of silence flew by, as the cow-boys were staring at the Mugiwaras which themselves were staring at their hazelnut-haired nakama.

"Fuu…?" asked Robin with a curious expression, "Is something wrong with the Saloon?"

_Ugh… _swallowed back Fuu at seeing everyone staring at her and the cow-boys inside even starting to shot her some glances.

And indeed, the second she stepped inside flanked by Ace, Robin – and in a certain measure everyone else – noticed there was indeed something going on.

The cow-boys had started elbowing each other, whispering in low voice while eyeing the two guests travelling with the Mugiwaras with some jazzing smiles.

Fuu felt herself blush ardently and she lowered her eyes to try and hide her expression under the shadow of her hat, while some low chuckles and/or whistles were gradually reaching her ears, as the cow-boys present in the room where sharing their opinion on the 'couple' which had entered the Saloon again, barely 48 hours after having caused a scene – the most distorted versions of the aforementioned scene coming from cow-boys which hadn't even witnessed it first-handed.

TILT. But at realising she had instinctively bent towards the right, getting imperceptibly closer to Ace as in an unconscious wish to gain support from him, she froze and turned precipitately her body towards her other neighbour, most desirous to show her resolution of not depending on Ace.

On his side, WhiteBeard's Second Commander had noticed the change, but it only made his lips stretch in an interested and amused smile.

"Fuu, what happened here last time?" thus asked in low voice Robin with a shared expression, perfectly remembering how Ace had dragged Fuu to the Saloon the day before to gather information, but not managing to guess what they could have done to deserve such an eerie welcome.

"It's… it's nothing…" mumbled Fuu while trying to control the tone of her voice.

"Ace, what happened?" asked Nami while arching a suspicious eyebrow.

"Hum…?" reacted WhiteBeard's Second Commander, an apparently not-ashamed-at-all smile floating on his lips, "Let's say we 'forgot' to pay…"

TILT. Fuu's body tensed even more at the remembrance of their lack of manners, but most of all at the chaos they had caused in the room before leaving, and thus at the deduction of the inn-keeper on their 'activity' in the room in question.

"Only that?" asked further Nami, not entirely convinced even though she knew Fuu could be the type of person to react really strongly for this kind of things.

But Ace had no opportunity to keep the suspense going on, as a call from a table in the corner of the Saloon interrupted the conversation.

"OY!" called a tall blond-haired guy wearing a white long-sleeved shirt on a purple tank top and glasses.

"Marco…?" mumbled Fuu, the really specific hairstyle of WhiteBeard's First Commander making him easily identified.

And abandoning behind her the embarrassment of their reputation in the Saloon, she walked towards him with a smile, soon followed by the rest of the group.

"Heehee…" grinned Marco while greeting everyone else in a friendly way, while Fuu and Ace were paying their regards to the rest of his team who was sitting around the table, "How are you doing?"

"Great, great!" smiled Fuu while momentarily forgetting her previous concerns, "I'm glad you caught up with us so quickly!"

"Not everyone has the most gifted navigator of Grand Line as a girlfriend, oy…" joked Marco with a friendly smile for Luffy who had already left the group with some others to go and ring the shop-keeper to order food or pay a 'forgotten' bill instead of staying behind for courteous greetings, "But we still have an honourable mention in the area…"

"I see, I see…" giggled Fuu at thinking it was indeed quite spectacular to have the Fleet of a Yonkou getting distanced by the single ship of a Rookie, "The Moby Dick and everyone are there, then?"

TILT. Marco's eyes narrowed, and he waited for Anne's slight nod before answering, making Fuu quite puzzled and slightly worried that her question might be out-of-place.

"Well, not everyone barge in the middle on an unknown harbour in a careless way, you know…" began he with a tone both mocking and serious, "So the Moby Dick is stationed in a little creek nearby…"

"What?" titled Ace, his eyes narrowing at the declaration.

"Yeah…" sighed Marco in a resigned yet comforting way, "Exceptionally, we didn't send the stand-in, but nobody would imagine it's the real one either…"

Ace's face closed down.

He hadn't expected his crew to land on Kaidou's territory with the Moby Dick, but indeed it was impossible these days to use their usual strategy of sending the double ships on-land, since one of them had been damaged at Marine Ford and was still being repaired, while the other one had left the Fleet to make diversion just after the Buster Call from a month before.

Ace knew no one would expect WhiteBeard himself to be present, but the situation was still getting more and more complicated.

"Oh, I see…" mumbled Fuu who hadn't really followed the conversation but who was easily guessing it was a strategic issue she was exterior to, "And… Oh, say Marco, why are you wearing glasses?"

The change of topic worked beyond expectations, and the whole of the table started smiling.

"Well, you can thank Anne for them!" smirked Marco while pointing with the thumb at his red-haired nakama, "She thought it would look good on me and that people won't recognise me with them on, heehee…"

_No way… _thought Fuu with an amused yet world-weary expression, _I can readily admit that putting a shirt on to hide WhiteBeard's mark tattooed on his chest might be effective, but GLASSES? Could it be that the Clark Kent phenomenon works also in One Piece World…?_

"And I'm the first surprised to see worked… Well, until we called you over, oy…" jested Marco with a knowing glance for the surrounding cow-boys in the Saloon, which indeed had added a new gossip to their list and were discussing how it was indeed Marco the Phoenix sitting across the room.

_So it DID work… _thought Fuu with a huge drop of doubtful sweat appearing on her temple.

"In the end, you're the one who blew my cover up…" mocked Marco with a conniving smile for the girl who had called his name out in the open.

"Sorry…" muttered Fuu, wondering if she should take him seriously or just laugh the matter away.

"Well, even though they know who I am now, I still can't get a worse reputation than the two travellers they were talking about this afternoon, heehee…" added Marco in a chuckle, joined by the approving nods of the rest of his table.

"Travellers…?" repeated Fuu, a bit puzzled.

"Yeah… That's the only thing we heard about when entering the town…" answered one or Marco's crewmates – whose mission was generally to scout the surroundings on-land and to ask the locals about potential pirates/thieves/Marines/enemies around.

"A couple of travellers who came by yesterday and managed to earn themselves a reputation worth the X column of Grand Line Newspaper…" laughed the second scout, his tone a mixture of admiration and disapprobation, "Well, it's a small town with nothing much happening, so it's better not to take their words literally, but the guy apparently found himself quite a girl and makes it a matter of pride to honour her regardless of the time of the day or the 'casualties' caused, hahaha…"

"Give people sex stories and they won't care about politics anymore, heehee…" approved the first scout with a thumb up for the rest of the crew.

SHIN. Fuu's head had fallen under the shadow of her hat again, and if she could have transformed into a mouse and run away to hide at that very moment, she would probably have done so…

Even Ace couldn't rejoice about Fuu's reaction proving she cared, at that point, and he had averted his eyes in a slightly troubled expression.

"A couple of travellers… yesterday…?" pursued Robin, an eerie smile floating on her lips as she was slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Yeah, not that I care, but… Well, to be honest, I'm a bit grateful they're already the hot topic and stole the spotlight from us, oy…" chuckled Marco while pouring more whiskey in his tankard, "But come on, you can't help laughing at it… I mean, after having barged in the Saloon of a small harbour, asked for a room in broad daylight, and managed to break a heavy wooden bed in the process, this couple would better not come again in this town or you can be sure everyone will be gossiping and jazzing, heehee…"

Fuu's blush had brightened so heatedly that she slowly turned on her heels and started walking away with what was left of her composure.

But unfortunately for her, it was the moment that the inn-keeper chose to leave the kitchen and enter the main room. He immediately spotted Fuu and Ace – part of only clients still standing – on the other side of the room and called them over.

"HEY, YOU TWO!" called he in a friendly yet lecturing tone, as if having preferred some fuel to gossips to the lack of honesty of some eat-and-run, "If you want another room tonight, you'll have to pay me for the repairing of the bed first!"

"Hahaha!" SHRRR. SHIN… In three movements…

"Hahaha!" had laughed the majority of the cow-boys present in the room, awfully joyful to have some official gossip to brighten their evening.

SHRRR. had spurted out Marco, Zoro, Sanji and some other pirates at realising to whom the inn-keeper was talking and what it was implying.

SHIN. had frozen Fuu, shame having drained all colours from her face and her heart being now shared between collapsing in tears and busting into anger.

She breathed in… slowly… deeply… and raised her eyes at a normal level before turning her face towards Robin, Ace, Marco, Anne and the rest of the group.

But the faint semblance of composure she had forced on her face crumbled at seeing that Ace had already walked away to cross the room towards the bar, his expression impossible to see from Fuu's point of view, but his pace calm enough for her to guess that the situation wasn't perturbing him more than that.

_Grr… _thought she with a tingling bitter feeling of abandon squeezing her heart, before promising herself never to expect anything from him again, even in a problem HE had caused.

And she turned a resigned face towards Marco and the other WhiteBeard's pirates, trying her best to hide her embarrassment. Robin had quietly left with the other Mugiwaras who had dragged behind to go and join Nami and Luffy at the bar, but not without leaving one of her duplicated ears under Marco's table.

"So… you were the ones who asked for a room yesterday?" asked Marco with a dumbfounded expression when finally being able to utter the question to which he already had an answer.

"NO!" retorted Fuu, getting really embarrassed and trying to avoid blushing at the hint, but in vain, "Hum… no, I mean, yes, we did but…"

The remark made a few WhiteBeard's Pirates whistle in teasing admiration, causing Fuu to blush even redder and making Marco crook an amused smile at her reaction.

"So… did you really break the bed?" pursued he with this time a faint teasing tone.

"NO!" panicked Fuu before finally gulping back her answer and lowering her eyes on the floor with a deeply troubled expression, "I mean… yes, Ace did, but…"

"I guess he just played it hard, hum…?" grinned Marco with a provocative smile, but his interlocutor was already too ill-at-ease to even notice it.

"Y… yes, but…" began Fuu before stopping mid-sentence at hearing another burst of whistles mixing with laughs.

TILT. The innuendo of Marco's late question finally stroke Fuu and she blushed even further on the scale separating white from bright scarlet, before raising her eyes in panic on WhiteBeard's First Commander.

"N… no, NO!" No, I didn't mean it that way, I… it's… it's not…" mumbled she at full speed while bending towards him to stare deep into Marco's eyes with a pitiful expression, as if hoping to make him believe her.

Marco gazed a few seconds at Fuu's scarlet face and sheepish eyes and finally couldn't hold it anymore and busted into laughter too.

"Oy… Don't make such a face, oy…!" laughed he with a warm grin while digging Fuu's hat on her head to ruffle her hair like one would do on a child to comfort them, "It's fine, it's fine! I believe you… heehee…"

Fuu's cheeks were now puffed in a sulking expression, wondering how she was supposed to take the tease, but the deep embarrassment from previously had eased considerably at seeing Marco knew the both of them well enough to know the gossips were not true.

"I know it's all a misunderstanding…" began Marco while his smile was suddenly becoming more serious, "But as I said before, even if it's about Ace and you, it still helps that the town people are concerned ONLY about that…"

TILT. The eerie serious tone made Fuu's expression soften gradually, and she stared at Marco while silently analysing his remark, as well as all the previous ones she had not answered for being too self-conscious some minutes before.

The little elements she had noticed ever since landing on the island slowly found place in her mind, and easily supplanted the previous scene – mostly because her head was desperate to find anything else to occupy her thoughts than a provocative playboyish WhiteBeard's Commander.

"You prefer having the locals gossip around rather than warning Kaidou's men that you are there, do you?" asked she composedly while graciously arching an eyebrow.

SHIN. Marco stopped the tankard of whiskey he had brought to his mouth and shot a surprised glance at his hazelnut-haired interlocutor.

"Did Ace tell you about Kaidou…?" asked he in a very precautious tone, as if mentally weighting his interlocutor.

"He did not, tsk…!" sulked Fuu with a bitter reproachful glance for WhiteBeard's Second Commander who was actively speaking with the inn-keeper at the other end of the room.

"So… woman's intuition…?" asked Marco in a more relaxed tone bordering on the tease.

"Nope…" sighed Fuu while inwardly wondering how she was supposed to take Marco's behaviour on the topic, "We overheard some cow-boys talking about it the last day, and I guess it's his mark on the Jolly Roger floating in the harbour and above the mines… There is also this tax on the gold, and somehow, Ace has been acting strange about it… So it would make sense if it was Kaidou… But it's still a bit confusing for me… I mean, even if all the Yonkous are not as friendly as Shanks, I don't really get why you would want to jump at each other throats when you're on someone else's protectorate…"

Marco's expression was now clearly diverted, and he gazed attentively at his interlocutor to encourage her to finish her comment, inwardly wondering what Fuu's references or past experiences could be to put Akagami in the category of the 'friendly' pirates.

"I mean…" added Fuu while blushing a bit at seeing Marco really eager to hear the rest of her little declaration but with an impossible-to-interpret smile, "I had always thought Yonkous' territories were determined and negotiated based on influences and bluff-based provocations… so it seems weird to me to see you being wary of another Fleet to the point of hiding your presence somewhere…"

_Okay, sure… My standards are only up to Mafia Wars in old Italian movies, but come on, I guess Pirates Fleets are somewhat similar… You know, the kind where they glare at each other with handy men behind them to provoke each other but without reaching the point where they actually attack… _analysed she while gazing at Marco's enigmatic expression, _Did I really say something THAT weird?_

"Heehee…" chuckled Marco at the description, which made Fuu sulk a bit more for being laughed at, "Yeah, you're right, I'm nearly impressed… Actually, it had been working like that in the past… but ever since Marine Ford, the odds have changed a bit…"

Fuu's eyes widened at the declaration and she zealously gazed at her interlocutor, almost not believing that WhiteBeard's First Commander was actually talking with her about that kind of topic.

"Changed…?" repeated she with a curious yet precautious tone, afraid of blowing up the mood and having Marco stop his explanation.

_They… they never said anything about the Fleet problems, or about their Territories, or about anything strategic in front of me before… never talked about it…_ thought she while giving her whole attention to the conversation and her interlocutor, feeling both honoured, melancholic and puzzled at the same time.

"It changed…" repeated Marco with a serious and weary tone, "Great wars can change an era, and pirates are the first ones to seise every opportunity coming their way… Marine Ford brought forth a lot of… new considerations for some Fleets in the New World…"

_Like people realising Oyaji was getting old… Like people realising that a rookie like Mugiwara could speak as an equal to him… _inwardly screeched Marco at remembering that, even if for the world, WhiteBeard had been a bakemono during that war, for the ones knowing where to look at, it had been obvious he wasn't the all-powerful Emperor he used to be, _Times are changing, or should I say times could have changed that day… But we won the War! Oyaji is still there and we're going to make him the Pirate King! This Era is the one of the WhiteBeard's Pirates and that's not going to change anytime soon!_

"And it's not always easy to deal with it, now that we're back in the New World… Kaidou is one of our current concerns, and stepping onto his protectorate to make a scene is as thoughtless as jumping into quick sands… So even if it's a misunderstanding, it's not bad to have all the people of this town only caring about some gossips and not about diplomatic stances between Yonkous…" added he with a soft smile for his hazelnut-haired interlocutor which was contrasting with his serious tone.

From the corner of the eye, Marco was amusingly glancing at the scene of Ace chit-chatting almost happily with some pirates and cow-boys apparently wanting to hear his exploit in the room with the broken bed, one of them having even taken out a notebook and quill pen as if to take note on what to do to please ladies.

On her side, ignorant of the scene in her back, Fuu had paused, taken aback by the previous declaration and wondering if WhiteBeard's First Commander was expecting her opinion on the topic or if she should just feel grateful to be in the confidence.

"So how about you help us out, on this one?" offered Marco by taking the initiative with a small smile, perfectly knowing what would be the answer.

"Of course!" eagerly answered Fuu, way too happy to be helpful to ask for the details before accepting, "How can I help?"

"Well, since we have one of the two protagonists of the show in our side, how about you just play along?" hinted Marco with a conniving glance towards Ace for Fuu, "Playing along to strengthen this reputation and give the town people some fuel for their gossips, keeping their conversation busy with idle travellers sex stories…?"

SHIN. At such a comment, Fuu instantly recovered her scarlet skin tone and she averted her eyes in a deeply troubled and sulking expression.

"Oy, Fuu…" called Marco, making the hazelnut-haired girl shot him a glance, "It would help if you could just make it so that the people here keep on speaking ONLY about Ace's 'performance' in bed rather than about us or Oyaji…"

Fuu slowly abandoned her sulking pose at seeing how serious Marco seemed to be on the topic. She always had trouble knowing what WhiteBeard's First Commander could think, but this story about Marine Ford and Yonkou Territories had made the little bell of her responsibilities ring.

And besides the matter about Kaidou and his 'diplomatic stance' with the WhiteBeard's Pirates, she was also remembering perfectly all the glares Ace had earned himself upon entering the Saloon the very first time. And judging from the change of reaction of all the cow-boys around right now – which were way more relaxed and jokingly than before – it was no trouble to imagine that having people gossiping about your 'performance in bed' was far better than having them treat you as if you were the thing they hated most in this world.

_Seems like guys can suddenly befriend their enemies as long as they find a common topic of interest, sigh… And also, it seems that pirates don't have it easy, in the end… Hum, what was I expecting…? Even if they're the heroes of a manga in my world, here they're not considered better than any outlaw from the XVIIIth Century back home…_ thought she with a short glance for Ace who was now battling with his little brother for food, while Nami was making a charm act to the barman to negotiate the prices of the food and whiskey, _Although it can be quite easy to forget it with Luffy and the others, hihihi… When we're with them, we don't think twice before landing on a new island… we don't think twice when looking at an unknown Jolly Roger… we don't think twice before taking some gold from a mine under the control of a Yonkou…_

_Maybe it would be time for me to think twice or three times about these things… it's not like I'm a tourist here, as Clow is pointing out so smartly… Sigh… Oh well, I was the one who offered some help, so… if it can really help… Hum, but still, it's quite an embarrassing strategy…_

"So…" smiled Marco at seeing the change of expression of his interlocutor but still detecting a hint of hesitation, "You're in? Unless you can't play a role like that for a mere single evening?"

"Of course I can play a role!" instinctively retorted Fuu with a small outburst of pride, before realising at Marco's expression that she had stepped exactly where he had wanted her to come, "Hum… Well, it's fine! I can make an effort and try and play along…"

"Heehee…" grinned Marco with a satisfied expression, "Then I leave it up to you…"

_Grr… He got me… _inwardly sulked Fuu at seeing the victorious smile WhiteBeard's First Commander had on his lips, _Oh well… If it's just trying to stop and blush and not making a scene of complete denial respecting to my 'relations' with Ace, I guess I can make an effort… After all, the gossiping part of the room is more than happy to invent the rest, sigh…_

_Besides playing this role without a care will also show this damn playboy that I can stand next to him without being infatuated by him like any other girl… I guess that's a double-win!_

And while repressing a sigh, Fuu promised herself to do her best for her role and answered Sanji's distant enquiries for hurrying to the table on which he had prepared – more like salvaged – some food from the two D-brothers-monsters at the bar for his three goddesses.

Behind her, Anne had put her head on her hands in an amused contemplating pose.

"You could have told her it was a joke…" remarked she for Marco who had resumed drinking once their interlocutor had left.

"I was serious, oy…" chuckled Marco while crooking an ambiguous smile.

"I know you were serious about Kaidou and keeping their spies busy… Besides, you'll be happy to learn that they look a bit puzzled now that Ace and Fuu have stepped in…" retorted Anne while shooting a knowing glance in direction of a table of pirates at the other end of the room, "It's not hard to guess that they were sent to spy on us, ready to take the smallest hint of rebellion as a pretext to begin a war, but that these lovely X gossips are not helping for their agenda…"

"Yeah, it's not like they're difficult to spot…" laughed WhiteBeard's First Commander for the little group across the room that had been standing there ever since the WhiteBeard's Pirates had arrived, and in a very obvious spying fashion – meaning that they were ardently watching Ace and Marco's table while doing nothing else than hiding behind their tankards of whiskey, and one of them had a portative Den-Den-Mushi on his lap, ready to use it in crisis time, "Probably some newly-allied pirates overdoing it…"

"Well, you're in no place for lecturing people about overdoing it." teased Anne with a knowing glance for Fuu, "Knowing her as we know her, you perfectly knew she would take your request seriously and try to help with this… 'reputation' plan of yours…"

"Oy… you're not going to blame me for it, I hope?" countered Marco while arching an eyebrow in a mocking expression, "Rumours only live for 60 days, and that will be more than enough for us to go unnoticed while all the town will be busy with idle gossips… And besides, these two are just too fun to tease…"

"Hum…" paused Anne while arching a reproachful eyebrow in answer to Marco's expression.

"Okay, I confess it's not nice of me to play around with her… but it's not every day we can shake their current stand-still like that, heehee…" chuckled Marco at the thought of seeing Fuu not running away from Ace because of her role for one full evening.

"Hum…" paused once more Anne with the beginning of a smile.

"Come on… on top of being extremely diverting, it might even push them enough to make them make some progress…" hinted Marco with a mixture of hopefulness and resignation, the whole peppered with humour.

"Hum…" nodded Anne with an amused smile, "There's still a long way to go… but I'm in too!"

And while Marco was giving her a conniving smile for taking part in the plan, Anne calmly stood up to go and walk towards their starring female protagonist of the evening – an hazelnut-haired girl who was for now only charming a little plushie-like reindeer instead of going and turn the head of their Second Commander as the sexy pirate woman the rumours were depicting her as.

_We should heat things up a bit… _grinned Anne while asking Fuu for a chat.


	35. Story V, Quest, TwoFaces West 2

**Credits:** Lyrics of the song: "Cowboy Casanava" by Carrie Underwood from Mike Elizondo, Brett James & Carrie Underwood under the label Arista Nashville | Original Song on YouTube: watch?v=oM7NQQ0Lfu4

Lyrics of the song: "The World is not Enough" by Garbage from David Arnold & Don Black under the label Radioactive/MCA (Universal) | Original Song on YouTube: watch?v= dhhg1RvpeaM

* * *

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

Two-Faces West ~Part. 2~

…

**NEW WORLD, EL DORADO, SALOON**

"Now, go for it!" instructed Anne with a cunning grin, while noticing a detail on Fuu's outfit and swiftly unbuttoning the two pearls bringing together the two sides of the cleavage of her bustier dress, thus putting the finishing touch to her preparations to give the male lead of her plan a beautiful and teasing 'perspective'.

"O… okay…" mumbled Fuu with all the composure she had left after the few – long from her perspective – embarrassing minutes Anne had just spent coaching her so that she would be more 'active' in her role of a libertine pirate.

After countless blushes and unintelligible mutters of embarrassed refuting, Anne had indeed easily won the debate and Fuu had more or less quietly listened to her strategies for giving the surrounding cow-boys something worth their gossips.

"B… but I still don't think it's really necessary…" tried Fuu with a sheepish expression while battling to re-button the cleavage of her bustier – fruitless tentative as Anne was re-unbuttoning it more quickly than Fuu was bringing it back together.

"What are you talking about?" joked Anne while definitely removing the two pearl buttons from their place and thus winning the battle for how much of Fuu's cleavage was going to be on display, "That's already surprising you never used this strategy as a diversion in a pub or some other place… We pirate women use it all the time! It's just too easy to lure men into doing what we need them to do thanks to it!"

_Well, Nami use it quite often to gain some information or to bargain discounts… _thought Fuu at recollecting such episodes and agreeing despite herself that 'female charms' were indeed really effective for such purpose, _Besides, even in the real world, there are lots of girls pulling such tricks to get what they want… But it's just… tsk…_

"Anyway, you just have to play along… so if you're lost at some moment, I'll just send you a sign for the next move!" grinned Anne who had already anticipated such problems and had therefore spent a couple of minutes teaching Fuu basic hand positions as a silent code in order to keep in touch with her leading 'actress'.

_Sigh… _inwardly despaired Fuu while resigning herself to her fate.

She looked down on her now-really-exposed cleavage and shot a moody glance towards the bar-counter at which Ace was still sitting – eating – with his brother, Sanji, Zoro, Franky and a couple of cow-boys.

"Or is it that it's because it's Ace…?" sneaked in Anne with a very perceptive smile.

TILT. Fuu's cheeks flushed with shame and embarrassment.

"Of course not!" countered she with a strong voice and sulking expression.

"Then it's perfect! I don't see what the problem can be…!" smiled Anne with a cunning expression, "After all, if you were disagreeing with this plan just because it's Ace and not another of your nakamas, that would mean you'd need to ask yourself a couple of questions, right…?"

Fuu didn't take the hint and simply averted her eyes while making no answer, but Anne's grin just grew deeper in front of such a reaction.

And with a last pat – push – on Fuu's shoulders, Anne sent her 'female lead' off.

_Okay… let's see, let's see… The plan, the plan… _was mentally rehearsing Fuu with strong image training as she was gradually progressing towards the bar-counter with what she could try a self-confident attitude.

Hyper-ventilation helping out grilling her last fuses of reason as she was breathing in too deeply to give herself some countenance, Fuu finally approached Ace from the back and threw herself head on in the plan – or at least her interpretation of it.

MIOM. Her mouth swiftly landed on Ace's fork, stealing away the piece of meat before it could reach the lips of WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

Ace froze, the fork still risen in mid-air, and turned a dumbfounded face towards the girl whose face was now mere centimetres away from his, and whose attire had gone through some small modification but with impressive consequences – especially from the angle Ace had on his hazelnut-haired thief.

Fuu froze too, feeling her body getting hotter and hotter and her eyes getting wet at realizing – or rather her taste buds painfully sending her the information – that she had just gulped down a piece of beefsteak covered with red chilli pepper sauce though she couldn't stand spicy food at all.

SHIN. But at seeing that everyone at the counter had gradually turned their eyes towards her – except Luffy who was still devouring the huge piece of meat of his own plate – Fuu forced herself to focus on the next part of the plan, since all the attention was now on her.

"Building up stamina for tonight, huh…?" murmured she in a loud and teasing voice, staring deep inside Ace's eyes while trying not to cry because of the after-effect of the chilli pepper, "And did you already book the room or should I convince this dear bartender to allow us to prove the resistance of another of his beds?"

BAM. The fork had fallen from Ace's hand, along the cigarette from Sanji's mouth and the tankard from Zoro's hand, while the three had frozen in shock, their eyes barely trembling of flabbergasted realization – and leaving easy openings for Luffy to pick and steal some food from their plates.

"So how about it, dear bartender…?" asked Fuu with the sweetest tone she could manage to produce, while pressing herself closer to Ace to bend towards the counter.

But her hands missed the border as she was bending over – too preoccupied to be close but not too close to Ace to evaluate the distance with the bar correctly – and it was finally her elbow which landed on it, giving her an awkward pose but also giving the bartender in question a nice view on her cleavage, though involuntarily.

"Hum, hey, yeah Miss… Y… your man just paid the note for the previous room…" mumbled the inn-keeper, somehow troubled by the little act and forgetting that the payment in question had actually just been negotiated to be paid 'later', "But the bed is still broken so I can't just give you this one again, hum… How about Room #3? It has the biggest and strongest oak bed of the house, my word! So it should be… should be, hum hum…"

But at seeing Fuu holding out her hand towards him with a knowing/confident/teasing expression – although she was inwardly struggling in her uncomfortable position not to fall over in a very non seductive way – he just grabbed the key on the wall behind the counter and hold it out to her while mumbling the rest of his comment in his barb.

At the other end of the room, Anne just slapped her forehead with the flat of her hand.

"Don't be so hard on her, oy…" chuckled Marco while laughing hard behind his tankard for having followed the whole scene from the distance too.

"I can't believe it!" ranted Anne while fighting back the urge to run at Fuu immediately to give her a piece of her mind, "When I said 'taunting' she just 'picked his food' and when I said 'alluring' she just… just… Okay, sure, plus one point for the red cheeks, wet eyes and hot skin for having eaten the chilli, and plus one point for her clumsiness which really saved her on that one, but… but… No but what's with this poor act of seduction? It's crystal clear she's forcing herself to no point! Anyone a bit perceptive can see that…"

"Well, then it's all to your benefits that there is no one perceptive in this room, heehee…" chuckled Marco while pointing knowingly at the crowd of cow-boys who were now gossiping harder and harder, and elbowing each other while repeating to each other that the pirate couple had asked for the room with the oak bed, "Don't worry, you're not going to lose your place as the Fleet Strategist just for betting on the wrong actress..."

"Humph…" grumbled Anne while looking around and noticing that despite how poor the act was, the results were still present, "No, seriously… Are you men THAT blind as long as you can see a little skin? It really makes me wonder while we're putting so much effort in trying to seduce you the rest of the time!"

Marco's smile grew a bit wider at the remark, but made no answer, merely pointed out with a faint gesture of his tankard at a table at the other end of the room.

"Well, it still paid off…" chuckled he before gulping down some whiskey with an amused expression.

"Sigh, even them… I kind of pity Kaidou for having such easy-to-trick spies, you know…" despaired Anne while witnessing that the plan's target – or rather the target used as a pretext for the plan – was quite receptive to Fuu's little act.

Indeed, near the counter, at the table of the spies, two of the three pirates had now their eyes pinned on the couple at the bar-counter with voyeuristic blushes while the third one had dropped the Den-Den Mushi to wipe away a nosebleed and look around for some tavern girl to comfort him, not planning on letting a WhiteBeard's Pirate being the only one to enjoy his night.

"You can't blame them… There are even less women in their Fleet than in ours, oy…" smiled Marco with an expression bordering on the sympathy, "So when seeing their rivals so well 'served'… they'll just behave like normal men in this kind of circumstances, heehee…"

And the circumstances were that Fuu was now in possession of the key of the room, but with no idea what to do now that she had managed to get it.

In her mind were rushing a lot of possibilities ranging from keeping it for later to using it right now to drag Ace in the room, but she had utterly no desire to repeat the embarrassing episode from a day before by staying alone with him in a room while everyone was expecting them to have some 'nightly occupations'.

At a loss, her eyes wandered past the inn-keeper – her supposedly charming smile still pasted on her lips due to lack of other ideas – and she finally noticed the reflexion of Anne in the long horizontal mirror hanging on the wall behind the bar-counter and ordered her mind to be quiet to focus on decoding the signs the rufous-haired pirate.

SHIN. A small second of realization flew by…

"Wh… What? And she can't even remember such basic codes?" ranted Anne when finishing her transmission but at seeing that Fuu was not following her instructions, "But 69 hand positions are not that hard to remember, come on…"

"Oy… maybe you should consider that she's remembering them and understood what you're saying but is not planning on obeying you…" hinted Marco while shooting a glance at the hazelnut-haired girl in question, and who had preferred to press herself on Ace to murmur at his ear that she was 'impatient' while dropping the key of the room in the front pocket of his shirt than following Anne's guidelines, "After all, asking her to mount him and caress him under his shirt seems a bit too much for her, heehee…"

"I said to snuggle on his chest, not…" retorted Anne before realizing what Marco's comment was implying, "Ooh, but I see someone here remember the code quite well, in the end…"

"Well, you've always been quite scary when teaching us this damned code, so even the dumbest of the crew would remember it by now…" laughed Marco with a nostalgic tone for the day Anne had barged in before an important fight to teach everyone a silent code to coordinate their efforts during the battle – and the result had been so effective that WhiteBeard himself had approved of the concept and the Fleet had kept on using it every time their enemy was worth a minimum of strategy, "But I would have never expected you to use it in such a way, oy…"

"Well, the basic parts of the anatomy to 'attack' are the same, and love is a war too!" grinned Anne with a half-serious half-mocking expression, before frowning more and more at seeing the current lack of 'attack' from her 'female lead' at the other end of the room and grabbing her backpack to pull something from it, "And at war, you listen to your strategist, grr…"

Back at the bar-counter, long seconds had spent in silence as Sanji, Zoro and Franky were still gasping at the show, their mind refusing to consider that what they were seeing was reality. Ace had finally been the first one to regain composure – or rather to order himself to recover countenance – and to ask himself why Fuu was behaving the way she was – including telling such blatant lies on top of pressing herself against him with such an exposed cleavage while she was usually running away from any close contact with him.

Upon seeing her hesitate a couple of times before acting – in that case letting her hands run on his chest in a clumsy fashion while looking somewhere else – he finally followed her gaze and ended up on the blurry reflection of Anne brandishing cardboards with scene instructions written in bold on them, and to which Fuu was reacting inwardly with all her usual embarrassment but still obeying for not having any excuse of miscommunication left – embarrassment only visible to the ones close enough to her to see her eyes tremble and her lips tighten together imperceptibly at each new instruction on the cardboard, and to hear her irregular heart-beat pound like crazy and echo until the veins of her hands pressed on his skin.

But before Ace could laugh at finally understanding the matter and the awkward situation caused by his rufous-haired nakama, he felt himself getting grabbed by both shoulders and dragged behind to a corner of the room, out of Fuu's embrace.

"Ah… hum…" startled Fuu, but too late for preventing some newly-recovered Sanji and Zoro to haul Ace away for some 'explanation'.

SHIN. And she was finally left alone at the counter, with Luffy still eating on her right, Franky massaging his chin with an amused grin for the little happening for having noticed the reflexion of the WhiteBeard's Pirate woman too, and the inn-keeper giving orders to one of his employees to go and place reinforcement wood-boards under the oak bed of Room #3.

"So… it seems like the plan is not going that well, in the end…" faintly laughed a feminine voice nearby at seeing the heated argument happening a bit farther between the three men – four ever since Marco had joined them.

"Robin…" reacted Fuu at seeing the black-haired archaeologist joining her with once more a comment a bit too perceptive, "How do you…?"

But before she could finish her question, Robin gave her a conniving smile while brushing one of her ears under her fingers.

"Duplicated ears, huh…?" sighed Fuu in a rhetoric tone, not even bothering getting shocked to be spied on once again.

"Hum hum…" faintly nodded the archaeologist, "I was expecting something more amusing before the show ended, but by the look of it, Ace-san is probably going to have some trouble taking on his role…"

Fuu shot a glance at the four men discussing actively at the other end of the room, though in a calmer fashion than a minute before. Marco seemed to have taken the lead in the debate, and from the look of it, Ace was now out of trouble… sufficiently out of trouble to look towards the bar-counter and send her a glance which made Fuu's blood rush to her cheeks.

"Tsk, he… I really don't think he cares at all!" ranted Fuu while averting her eyes from him and grabbing a glass near Luffy to try and give herself some composure, "He didn't even seem to care when we first entered the Saloon either… grr…"

"Well, you know men always have a selective sense of priorities as long as the proof of their 'virile potency' is part of the list…" hinted Robin with a soft laugh while coming to take a drink near Fuu.

_Proof of their… Grr, just go to hell, you macho narcissist playboy! _ inwardly cursed Fuu while strengthening her resolution not to let any opening in front of Ace again.

"I can understand you dislike the fact, but it's not like we can do anything to it. So you should just get used to it…" advised Robin with a resigned smile, but something in her countenance was saying she was finding the situation diverting.

_I already am… I have two brothers after all, and Clow is just as perverted – if not more – than the average normal guy… _thought Fuu with a depressed sigh at such statement, _But the problem is that pirates in general are in the 'libertine' part of the population and have therefore a level of 'normality' a bit higher than our average one, tsk…_

Fuu's eyes wondered on Luffy who was still eating at the counter, quite unaware of the big mess which had happened, except for the fact that he was now emptying Ace's plate without having to battle for it.

_Well, except a couple of them… _smiled Fuu with a laughing grin for her temporary captain.

"Or maybe you could drop the role…" suggested Robin who was already seeing the usual personality of her friend coming back at full speed in her manners and smiles, "After all, you didn't grow up in the kind of environment where you're used to behave or see such behaviours, so…"

TILT. The hint chimed in in Fuu's mind, and she briskly turned her head towards her interlocutor to clarify a point she had been waiting to clarify for a full day but without being able to find a moment alone with the archaeologist.

"Robin!" called she with determined tone, "About that… you know, what you said in the mines… about my growing up… hum, well, respecting to my origins, I wanted to…"

BAM. Fuu's speech was interrupted when she felt a strong hand falling on her shoulder, startling her.

"Fuu…" sighed Zoro with a weary tone while patting her shoulder in a somehow friendly and resigned way, "You're going head on in a wall…"

SHIN. Fuu blinked a couple of time, gazing at her interlocutor with a puzzled expression.

"Tsk, I can't understand why these idiots trusted you of all people with such an important diversion tactic while you're useless in the area…" grumbled he with a disapproving glare for the table at which Marco and Ace had gone back to sit down with the rest of the WhiteBeard's Pirates.

SNAP.

"So don't sweat it and just forget about it, you won't be able to do a thing even by…" kept on Zoro before slowly retrieving his hand from Fuu's shoulder at feeling her trembling and the air around her turning frosty.

"Yare yare…" philosophically forecasted Robin, as she was seeing her hazelnut-haired nakama crack up in front of such statement of her 'uselessness' – one of the few topics on which she was showing concern and pride.

* * *

**A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER**

"Wow, speak about a suuper rebel!" laughed Franky who had cautiously left the bar to watch from a prudent distance Fuu argue with Zoro in a very noisy fashion, "Two quarrels in less than a day… Where's the sweet little angel we're used to, heehee…?"

"Yes, she got better, hihihi…" smiled Nami who had dragged Luffy away from the bar-counter to make him stop eating the whole food supply of the Saloon – food she would need to pay afterwards, "Now, it would be good if she could defend that well against enemies as well, tsk…"

Because indeed, Fuu had entered a really heated fight with the green-haired swordsman, holding onto her position without seeming the least impressed by him – which contributed to fuel the gossips about her being a fearless pirate woman among the surrounding cow-boys.

"Yeah, true… When she snaps, she's just scary!" agreed Usopp with goose-bumps at seeing the argument between two of the people he would least want to confront – Zoro because of his shadowy glares, and Fuu because he only had seen her serious a couple of times and was really happy the count didn't rise more often, "More like a demon than an angel… It reminds me a bit of when Nami yells at us, except that Nami is a demon all the time and F…"

TILT. But Usopp couldn't finish his sentence as he felt an ominous feeling hitting him under the form of a cold and dark aura drawing nearer and nearer. He gradually turned his eyes towards his left while feeling cold sweats running down his spin.

"Did you say something, Usopp?" flashed the shadowy up-to-no-good smile of Nami who had let go of Luffy to ready her fists.

And while Usopp was turning white, blue, and white again while muttering trembling long stories to justify himself, Franky chuckled at the comparison between the mikan-haired navigator and their hazelnut-haired guest.

"Yeah, quite true… Definitely no angel, heehee!" estimated he with a short glance.

"How about a dark angel, then?" offered Robin with an interested smile, "I've found a rare and interesting book recently, with legends how a fallen archangel became a leader in Hell. I'm sure we should find a lot of useful details in these stories about how to corrupt angels and turn them into merciless murderers…"

SHIN. A heavy silence welcomed Robin's declaration, just like every time she was declaring inhuman things with emotionless tone and an eerie smile.

"It was a mere suggestion…" reassured the archaeologist at seeing her nakamas' reaction, even if her smile was hinting on a 'maybe not quite so'.

"Hum hum, anyway…"coughed Franky while trying to resume the original conversation, "I think our little Fuu is a bit too hype right now to get the title of Dark Angel…"

"I agree…" declared Robin with a look for the dark-angel-candidate who was fighting with Zoro with what was now a rather childish way punctuated with some 'I do what I want' comments – the surrounding cow-boys were even starting to wonder if they were witnessing a scene where the big brother is forbidding his little sister to be with her lover, and the whole room was fuzzing with new gossips, "Though I do remember her with a frosty stare and words as calm yet sharp as razors, and a presence and an aura making people freeze and gulp down with discomfited faces… the kind of unwavering attitude which suddenly makes you worry that you might have angered one of the Seven Highest Seraphim themselves…"

"Oh yeah, there had been that fight on the Sunny during the first time she was travelling with us… though I wouldn't go that far. Our captain is suuper scarier than her when he's angry, heehee…" chuckled Franky while remembering the little 'show' Fuu had made when she had cracked up with anger, before stopping in his sentence at realizing something was weird, "Hey, Nico Robin! You were unconscious at that time… how do you remember that? You've seen our komusume like that at another moment or something…?"

"Oh, I…" began Robin before also stopping midway when trying to clear up her memories, some images of herself as a child and of Fuu opposing a Commandant of the Cipher Pol appearing and disappearing into a blurry mess in her mind, "I… I don't remember…"

Franky gaped and stared at her, but before he could ask more questions, a huge noise coming from the bar drove their attention away from the matter.

"I'll show you!" roared Fuu in a sulking mood while abandoning Zoro behind her to go and cross the room in a very determined fashion.

"H… hey!" ranted the green-haired swordsman at seeing her walk towards the table of the WhiteBeard's Pirates.

And under the dumbfounded look of everyone at the table, Fuu grabbed the wooden chair with so much energy that she still managed to pull it back from nearly half-a-metre despite her ridiculous strength, and raised her leg really high to step above it and sit down astride it and its prior occupant.

_So what now…? _seemed to tell Fuu's challenging stare for Zoro, as her arms were slowly rising from her sides to go and cuddle around the neck of the one on which she was now pressed on, _I'll show you I can do it! I'm NOT useless!_

SHIN. But the uncomfortable silence around her suddenly made Fuu realize something was wrong.

Slowly, anger and vexation pulled back from her nerve endings, and her skin started sending her new information on her current situation.

A warm and tickling sensation started spreading from her arms, and without even having to turn her head, she knew the feeling of whose skin it was under hers.

TILT. Fuu's eyes suddenly twitched of realization, and she felt an irrepressible wave of heat rise under her skin, making her want to pull back as if fearing of burning herself.

Her hands slowly parted from each other behind the neck of the seat's occupant, as her eyes were slowly losing focus in the most primary feeling of uneasiness.

BAM. But before she could stand up from her position, the imperceptible premises of her escape got perceived, and the occupant from the seat swiftly passed both hands around her hips to grab her forcefully and hold her strongly onto him, depriving her of any possibility to move away.

She felt two muscular hands – whose touch she would recognize between a thousand – brush on the skin on her thighs, which had gotten exposed when she had sit astride the chair, her legs wide apart on each side of him and merely folded like she was kneeling above his lap.

TILT. Fuu froze, feeling as if thunder has hit her through such a simple contact.

Slowly, gradually, during a couple of seconds which passed like eternities, Fuu turned her eyes on her left, and stopped as they met the shine of two obsidian pupils.

She swallowed back with difficulty, her body gasping for air for these long seconds it had forgotten breathing, too much focused on all the sensations of her body to actually think about anything else.

But the charm break when:

"Wow, wow! Seems like I missed a lot, since when these two…?" whistled in admiration a newcomer grabbing a chair and sitting at the table, before stopping abruptly in his sentence at catching sight of Anne's murderous glares in his direction.

And while the newcomer was hardly regretting not to have been on watch duty at one of Kaidou's men presumed meeting places for a bit longer, Fuu recovered all her mind due to the interruption and her usual embarrassment and uneasiness around Ace had come back at full speed – to Anne's bitter disappointment, who had rejoiced and blessed whatever moody trick had finally made Fuu throw herself in Ace's arms.

Fuu, on her side, was now shooting quick glances from left to right, definitely ill-at-ease and trying to ascertain how she could leave the awful situation she had put herself into.

She startled at feeling Ace's hands seize her more strongly and bring her closer and closer to him, to the point she had to arch her back to try and put some distance between herself and him, be it a few centimetres.

"Do… do you know the situation we're in…?" mumbled Fuu in a whisper at Ace's ear, praying deep inside that Marco had given him an update on the situation and that Ace wouldn't make her role more complicated.

"Hum…" murmured Ace with one of his usual teasing smiles, even if Fuu was feeling even more uneasy as usual, probably due to an impossible-to-decipher light she was seeing in his eyes, "And I quite like the idea that I can do whatever I want for the rest of the evening and that you'll have to put up with it for the sake of our reputation…"

_BONG… or not, tsk… _thought Fuu while biting her inferior lip really hard to swallow back her desire of knocking off the arrogant smile of her interlocutor.

A short glance on the left informed her that Anne had – fortunately – replaced cardboards by her previous silent code with hand positions, but was – unfortunately – still telling her to keep on with the 'plan'.

A short glance on the right informed her that the only person who could have saved her from Ace's arms – even if she had been the one to throw herself in them, and was now bitterly cursing herself for it – thanks to a love-love twister, had been sent running after a beautiful waitress, and was now unable to save his damsel in distress – for how much Fuu was still debating with herself if her pride would bear better admitting she needed to be saved rather than letting herself be toyed around again by the playboy she had promised herself not to trust again.

A last glance in her back informed her that Robin had also abandoned her to go and sit down at what looked like a poker table, together with Zoro who was grumbling he needed to change his mood. Nami had met up with Luffy at the bar to try and moderate his enthusiasm but couldn't help it anymore as Usopp and Chopper joined in to go and do their basket-dance on the counter. Franky had apparently offered his service to the inn-keeper for reinforcing the oak bed and had gone upstairs with an amused look for the table of the WhiteBeard's Pirates, as if to judge the level of 'fire power' of their Second Commander and thus how much he should reinforce the bed. And Brook had disappeared somewhere…

_Sigh… _depressed Fuu at seeing herself all alone, before cursing herself for suddenly depending on people while she had always done everything on her own.

"Grr… If you're abusing the situation, I'll make you pay for it…" sulked she while giving Ace a harsh look.

"Sure, sure…" smiled Ace while withstanding her stare, not the least impressed by the threat.

SNAP. Fuu felt the blood rush in her cheeks in front of such poise, and she tried to rise from her 'sit', pushing with both hands on his chest to try and stand up.

But Ace hands effortlessly pinned her back on him, and even drew her closer to him in a swift and powerful twitch which made the surrounding cow-boys gossip even harder while muttering that the infamous starring couple maybe won't wait until the oak bed to start something.

"You're not planning on escaping, are you…?" provoked he while rising an eyebrow, his tone even cockier than usual, "Besides, weren't you the one supposed to taunt me?"

SHIN. Fuu froze a second, completely taken aback by Ace's countenance, and her lips started trembling as she was losing composure.

Usually, any man behaving that way with her would have for long been grilled by an electric spark – or a well-placed kick in the real world where Devil Fruit powers couldn't come in handy – but Ace just wasn't someone she could use her defensive barrier against. She just couldn't, because it didn't even crossed her mind to defend against him, despite everything she had promised herself.

She just gazed at him, helpless as usual as every time she was meeting the ardent light of Ace's obsidian eyes, her hands barely tightening into fists on his chest with the last remnants of her revolt.

"So where is the temptation…?" sneaked in Ace while pushing his hands further along Fuu's legs to haul her closer against him, not leaving Fuu the possibility to pull back out of his reach despite how much she was arching her back.

"I… I…" muttered she with a discomfited expression as her eyes were losing focus and her mind wasn't answering her anymore.

_I need to… I need to… _inwardly panicked Fuu as was feeling Ace's touch on her thighs, where the position astride him had brought up the lower part of her dress and revealed her legs.

Her nerve endings were now permanently sending up the electric signal testifying of Ace's fingers on her skin, and she knew in the whole of her body exactly where his hands were without even having to lower her eyes.

She felt them slowly pass under the fabric of the petticoats and grab her to pull her onto him once again, leaving only mere centimetres between her eyes and the obsidian ones which were hypnotising her.

She felt them ruffle further under the petticoats, setting her skin in fire and making her blood rush in her whole body even if it had drained from her face, face which was gradually and irremediably drawing closer to Ace's as he was attracting her to him.

She couldn't even hear the thumbing sound of Anne's elbow into Marco's ribs when the rufous-haired pirate had noticed something was not right, nor the cracking sound of the wood of a chair foot which had received hereafter a small kick from WhiteBeard's First Commander, nor the first note of music coming from the scene of the Saloon on which Brook was playing on an upright piano – taking over the seat of the pianist which had fainted at seeing a walking skeleton talking to him.

She could just feel Ace's breath getting closer to her lips, and his hands getting closer to the lace seam under her petticoats, when…

BAM.

The foot of the chair had broken, destabilizing the seat, and the three other feet soon followed, either for not supporting the supplementary load now that one support had fallen or just finding themselves between the floor and the occupants of the seat which were falling towards aforementioned floor.

BADABAM.

Ace and Fuu crashed on the wooden floorboards making the surrounding spectators bust into laugher and chuckling that it-was-doomed-to-happen-when-you-can't-hold-back-anymore-and-get-too-excited.

_Ouch… _thought Fuu as she was reopening her eyes again after the shock, _Huh…? Music…_

And when raising her head, she met the silhouette of a woman with black curly hair, wearing fishnet stockings and an assorted black corset with a feather boa, and holding in her hand an antique-looking mike.

_A… showgirl… from Far West time… _couldn't help but marvel Fuu at witnessing in real flesh the charisma of the black-haired woman whose bright red lips started humming to accompany the piano notes.

_**You better take it from me, that boy is like a disease,  
You're running, you're trying, you're trying to hide,  
And you're wondering why you can't get free…**_

At seeing the diva giving some amused and insisting glances towards the floor during the first verse, Fuu looked down and nearly chocked at seeing she had – for the second time ever since she knew him – fallen astride Ace in a very embarrassing position proper to fuel gossips for the rest of the night.

She blushed furiously – completely forgetting whatever plan or strategy she was supposed to be part of – panicked, nearly tripped, and tried to stand up as soon as she could.

BAM. But she felt a strong hand grabbing her wrist and holding her down.

Fuu briskly turned her head towards Ace, who had sit up by gaining support on his elbows and was now gazing at her with insistence with the same eerie light he had had in his eyes for the whole of their little show on the chair.

And the hypnosis of the obsidian eyes made Fuu halt her struggle and stop shaking her wrist out of his hand.

_**He's like a curse, he's like a drug,  
You get addicted to his lips,  
You wanna get out but he's holding you down,  
'Cause you can't live without one more touch…**_

The second verse of the diva sounded like a statement, like a warning, and Fuu quickly turned her head towards her with a puzzled look.

The woman with curly hair was singing her song with an amused glance for the couple still lying on the floor, starting to walk around them in a rolling gait way, as if everything was part of her show, and gave a wink to her audience before beginning her chorus.

_**He's a good time cowboy Casanova,  
Leaning up against the record machine,  
Looks like a cool drink of water,  
But he's candy-coated misery!  
He's the devil in disguise,  
A snake with black eyes,  
And he only comes out at night,  
Gives you feelings that you don't want to fight,  
You'd better run for your life!**_

The last swaying turn of the gorgeous singer had ended on an offer of her hand… to Fuu… a hand held out with a conniving and compassionate smile.

_A… damned playboy… a trap… a hypnotic trap… _thought Fuu while feeling similarly trapped by the diva and the lyrics of the song which were making a lot of bells ring in her heart.

She held out her hand towards the showgirl and put one knee on the floor to gain support, unconsciously accepting her invitation to stand up, but she suddenly felt herself being pulled back: refusing to let go of her other hand, Ace had sit on the wooden floor and was giving her an impossible-to-decipher gaze.

Fuu swallowed back with difficulty when meeting the obsidian eyes she had more and more trouble resisting.

_**I see that look on your face:  
You ain't hearing what I say,  
So I'll say it again,  
'Cause I know where you been,  
And I know how it ends!  
You can't get away,  
Don't even look in his eyes,  
He'll tell you nothing but lies,  
And you wanna believe…  
But you won't be deceived,  
If you listen to me,  
And take my advice…**_

The new verse made Fuu's attention switch towards the diva again, and she felt her mind blank out as the lyrics sung by the red lips were finding echo in her heart and in the feelings she had experienced ever since the beginning of the evening.

_W… who to believe…? She seems to know perfectly what she talking about, while me… Tsk… while me I don't even know what to do with this damned playboy… Why is it that I'm losing countenance in front of him? Why only him?_

_And also… why does it hurt to hear that I shouldn't trust what he's telling me…?_

At seeing Fuu's confused expression, Ace slowly let go of her hand – estimating that his advantage was over and that it wouldn't make him look cool to be a sore loser – and stared at the diva with a provoking and slightly annoyed smirk, not getting what her little trick could help her with, but quite getting that she was the one who had robbed him his victory, her and a certain Phoenix who had kicked his chair right before the kiss sealing his triumph.

_**He's a good time cowboy Casanova,  
Leaning up against the record machine,  
Looks like a cool drink of water,  
But he's candy-coated misery!  
He's the devil in disguise,  
A snake with black eyes,  
And he only comes out at night,  
Gives you feelings that you don't want to fight,  
You'd better run for your life!**_

Guided by the showgirl's hand, Fuu had stood up and was watching passively as the black-haired singer was dancing around her with the same swaying air, as if dedicating the song to her.

_Running away… Far, far away from his arms, from his eyes, from his smiles! Not letting him deceive me! Because… I'm afraid of what would happen if I let him in… _though Fuu in a frustrated blush.

And as the diva was humming the last sentence of her song, sending a compassionate smile to Fuu and a provocative wink to Ace before walking back towards the scene for the next part of the show, Fuu clenched her teeth and her fists and escaped too towards the bar, without giving a single look back for Ace.

"Seems like there was someone perceptive in this room in the end…" declared Marco for Anne with a shared expression for the diva who had seen through Fuu's little act of seduction as if it had been child-play.

Anne stood up and gave him a knowing look, and Marco followed her outside to discuss the situation, abandoning Ace to their nakamas and their bottles of whiskey to comfort him from having lost his partner – whiskey soon complemented by a couple of cow-girls interested in sharing a drink with them.

* * *

**AT THE POKER TABLE**

Meanwhile, sitting at another table, Zoro and Robin were silent, focused on the hands of five cards that the dealer had distributed them, eyeing from times to others their four other opponents and secretly happy to have managed to keep their occupation secret from Nami, strategy which was now leaving them a chance to win the pile of Berrys accumulated at the centre of the table.

"Call…" announced one of the cow-boys sitting across them, an old man with a friendly face but quick eyes, and who was opening a silver flask from times to others to drink long sips of whiskey from it.

"Match… and raise." calmly declared Robin with one of her usual enigmatic smiles.

"Humph…" grumbled Zoro while shooting a glance at his black-haired opponent from across the round table, trying to distinguish to her expression if she was bluffing or not.

_Grr… I really can't guess what this damned woman is thinking!_

Meanwhile, the players were stating their position, in clockwise order.

"… Fold!" resigned one of the cow-boys while dropping his cards face-down on the table.

"Same here…" sighed the last cow-boy before Zoro who was the last of the table to speak on that one.

"So, youngster…?" chuckled the old cow-boy who had begun the betting turn, with an amused glance for the green-haired swordsman, "Are you matching up with the beautiful brunette or folding?"

_Tsk… _thought Zoro while staring at Robin who was still perfectly calm, _I've got more money in stack than her, that's not the problem! It's just I can't guess if she's bluffing or not… During the last ten rounds, she never bet big… as if it was nothing… but every time she raised the bet, she always made a mint… as if knowing perfectly up against what she was playing…_

_Cheating…? But I've got no proof: I've seen no duplicated eye wandering around… Tsk, I've been hiding my cards for a while now, but you never know… If she knows my hand, then…_

Some cold sweats of concentration started rolling down Zoro's temples.

His shadowy glare was completely ineffective against the black-haired archaeologist and he was now starting to feel pressured by the platonic mask of serenity of the young woman who was giving him a perfect 'Poker Face'.

Ever since the beginning of the evening, she had stayed calm under every circumstance, fleecing the three other cow-boys who were playing with them. The only ones who could still pretend to victory were now only the old cow-boy with the whiskey flask… and Zoro…

The swordsman was staring ardently in the blue eyes of his opponent, as if hoping to decipher something.

SHIN. Long seconds passed in silence around the table.

"So…" finally cut the old cow-boy who was fully enjoying the silent communication between the two pirates – perhaps even more than the game itself, "What are you deciding…? It's quite a bunch of money, you can renounce…"

TILT. The last word had made the pride of the swordsman tick off and a vein had appeared on his temple. There was 'honour' and 'pride' battling hard in this bumping vein of provocation, and one finally won over the other.

"All-in…" hammered Zoro while pushing the whole of his stack towards the centre of the table, his eyes pinned on Robin with a challenging light burning inside them.

"Ooh…" whistle with admiration the old cow-boy, quite diverted by the show-down between the two pirates.

And he softly let go of his cards face-down on the table, already folding before his turn to focus plainly on his whiskey flask and on the duel between the green-haired swordsman and the black-haired archaeologist.

On her side, Robin didn't blink, her faint smile didn't even falter.

Zoro shot a glance at her stack, quickly evaluating that she would need to take more money out of her pocket if she wanted to match up his bid.

"You don't have enough to call, right…?" teased Zoro with a provocative and victorious smirk.

"Hum…" softly paused Robin without losing countenance a single second, "Call!"

And she pushed her own stack towards the centre of the table, under the dumbfounded expression of the surrounding players.

"There's not enough for that!" exclaimed Zoro with a raging tone, after having recovered from the surprise.

"Oh, I'm planning on making up for the missing money, of course…" smiled Robin with a composed and detached voice, "I bet a night with me as compensation!"

CLONG. The jaws of Zoro and the other players – except the old cow-boy who just chuckled while gulping down some whiskey – unhooked in a significant and heavy silence.

And when finally recovering, Zoro turned from white to red, before finally exploding.

"Are you kidding?" roared he while slamming his fist on the table, "You can't bet that here!"

TILT. The old cow-boy twitched at the eerie answer, and he gave the green-haired pirate a wondering stare, inviting him to complete his thought for he had said either too little or too much.

"It… it doesn't count, that kind of bet!" mumbled Zoro with an apprehensive look for the cow-boy, justifying his first sentence ad he could.

"Oh, but it seems like the other players find it particularly valid…" jested Robin with an amused glance for the cow-boys sitting at their table, and who had dreamy expressions while wiping away some nosebleed in their sleeves.

"Hu… Yeah… Myeah… Oh my gosh…" were mumbling the cow-boys while eyeing Robin and the voluptuous cleavage of her camel dress, before all collapsing with despair at realizing they weren't on the run anymore and thus couldn't even dream of winning the prize.

"So are you still in, Ken-san?" asked the black-haired archaeologist with a confident pose, "Seems like it's only you and me, now…"

"Tsk…" grumbled Zoro while sitting back normally on the wooden chair, the last part of the sentence having both calmed him and made his pride tick once more.

_Grr… This damned woman! What the heck is she thinking putting something like that on the table while the others could still be on the round? … Hey, wait a sec: just what the heck am I thinking…? It's just… okay, chill out… Poker… Poker comes first!_

_If she dares betting something like that out in the open, it must mean something… She's probably got something big to back her up… So she must have a damned good hand… Here I have a Queens full of Aces, and she… she…_

Zoro was glancing frequently at Robin who was gazing at him with her trade-mark smile, an expression which managed to make Zoro crack up and forget all prudence.

"Of course I'm in!" shouted he ardently, hating more than anything else to be provoked, and with such a challenging smile on top of it.

And he pinned violently his five cards face-up on the table, revealing to all his Full House: Queen of Spade, Queen of Diamond, Queen of Clover, Ace of Diamond, Ace of Clover.

"Wow…" admired the cow-boys around the table, already starting to imagine that the green-haired pirate had really high chances to the prestigious prize.

Everyone's eyes then converged towards Robin, who hadn't lost her confident smile and was gazing over Zoro and his cards with unwavering poise.

SHIN. One or two seconds of silence flew by as the black-haired archaeologist gradually switched position on her chair, slowly bending forward and rising her cards at the level of her eyes.

The first card slowly got revealed to all: Ten of Hearts.

Jack of Hearts followed.

Queen of Hearts… All the players were instinctively bending towards the centre of the table, not even daring to breathe anymore.

King of Hearts… Zoro raised his eyes towards Robin, his lips slowly parting in an eerie expression of regrets…

The last card… it raised in the air, softly held by the long fingers of the beautiful archaeologist.

Everyone gulped down with apprehension.

The last card of Robin's hand fell on the table, face-up…

Ace… of Spade!

_W…H…A…T…? _inwardly shouted Zoro, nearly chocking in his own stupor.

He couldn't detach his eyes from the black card.

And before he could recover to look at his opponent, Robin had swiftly and effortlessly risen from her seat and bent over the flabbergasted swordsman.

"I'll be waiting for you to claim your prize, Ken-san…" murmured she at his ear before softly making a U-turn and leaving the table to walk towards the bar.

Time slowly resumed its course around the poker table, as Zoro raised his eyes from the contrasting black Ace which had ruined Robin's Straight Flush, while everyone was patting him in the back to congratulate him for his victory.

But all the noisy cheering couldn't drive his attention away from the slinking silhouette of the black-haired elegant woman.

"Haha haha… You lucky, pal!" laughed a cow-boy while sending a violent slap in Zoro's back which made him wake up from his trance, "Having won a night with such a gorgeous babe… the God of Poker sure has you in his good books!"

"Humph…" hesitated Zoro, recovering a bit from his previous surprise but still puzzled and suspicious respecting to Robin's attitude, "I wonder… I mean, I know this woman and she's…"

"Special…?" asked the old cow-boy while raising a sardonic eyebrow.

"Yeah…" imparted Zoro without leaving Robin's back out of sight, Robin who had already met up with Fuu at the bar to share a drink.

"Oh… so she's a special girl for you…" chuckled the old cow-boy while gulping down a bit of whiskey from his flask.

"Hum?" reacted Zoro before briskly turning his head towards his neighbour with a vexed and somehow bothered expression, "Tsk… Of course not, who do you take me for? I don't have time to lose with women, so no way I'd have any special girl!"

"Haha…" jested another cow-boy, "That's what we're all saying! But we don't feel the same inside…"

"A youngster like you must certainly have one or two girls in his heart…" nodded the old cow-boy with a patronizing smile.

"Humph…" sneered Zoro with a sulking expression while averting his eyes from his interlocutor.

"Yeah, like… let's see… A girl jumping in your arms!" tried one of the poker players.

Despite himself, a small bubble of thoughts started forming itself above Zoro's head.

A bubble in which appeared a face: the face of a girl with long pink hair and short shorts and who had prevented him from slicing a Tenryubito at Sabaody Archipelago.

"Yeah, or like… a girl making you lose your cool every time you see her!" added a second cow-boy, looking with melancholy at his tankard of whiskey, as if speaking from experience.

Meanwhile, a second bubble of thoughts was appearing just next to the first one above Zoro's head, this time containing the face of a glasses-wearing girl with short hair and wearing a Marine tee-shirt, a girl holding a really long katana and uttering threats of confiscation.

"How about a damsel in distress you would want to help out…?" added a passing-by cow-boy who had stopped by for finding the conversation to his liking.

A third bubble had already formed itself above Zoro's head, this time filled with the face of girl with long blue hair who was crying with frustration when contemplating the remnants of a sandy country laid waste by complot and civil war.

"Or a girl you've always found intriguing…" tried again the first cow-boy.

Zoro couldn't help a fourth bubble to appear next to the others, a bubble with the face of a black-haired woman with an enigmatic soft smile who was calling him Ken-san.

"I say, a girl you can't disobey!" added up another cow-boy with a frustrated laugh, probably speaking from experience too.

The fifth bubble was containing the face of a mikan-haired girl brandishing her fist and ranting and threatening to supplement his debt by a couple of zeros more.

"Or how about a girl who take good care of you…" hinted one of the poker players.

Next to the others, the sixth bubble of thoughts was filled with the face a ghost-manipulating girl wearing gothic fashion, and who had healed him countless time after his arrival on the same island as her due to the forced trip given by Bartholomew Kuma.

"Don't sweat it…!" chuckled the old cow-boy at seeing Zoro's expression who was new deep in thoughts and arm crossed in front of his chest in a perplexed attitude, "There must be a girl you love to see smiling…"

The seventh and last bubble appearing in Zoro's mind was now containing the face of a hazelnut-haired girl wearing a white dress and smiling joyfully when opening her 'birthday' gift.

"Hum…" grumbled in low voice Zoro, as if muttering to himself.

"Heehee…" chuckled the surrounding cow-boys at seeing the swordsman deep in thoughts.

"Seems like you remembered a couple of girls, youngster…" jested the old cow-boy while shaking his flask and realizing it was empty, "So, who's the special one who appeared several times in your mind?"

"No one… just all different…" grumbled Zoro, still perplexed by all the little bubbles in his mind and not really realizing he was answering the question.

"Wh…?" exclaimed the surrounding cow-boys at the declaration, "Wow, what a stud!"

"What the…? Of course not, tsk…!" retorted Zoro while baring his teeth, suddenly realizing what he had been saying and more vexed than ever to be put in the same basket as skirt-chasers like their _damned Ero-Cook_, "None of these girls interest me…"

"Humph… Yeah, sure sure…" chuckled the old cow-boy while taking a new flask from the inner pocket of his vest, "But if you can still remember their faces, their names and what they've done for you, it means they're already quite special for you, these girls…"

Inside of Zoro's mind, the bubbles of Jewelry Bonney and Perona slowly disappeared as he was unable to remember their names – vaguely a nickname for one, and it didn't mean much.

But in front the five remaining bubbles, he started to get seriously puzzled, and even a bit depressed.

_Na… nakamas…? No, not all of them… _cursed he while frowning deeply while the five little thoughts were dancing above his head as if to taunt him.

"They're not…" began Zoro before stopping his sentence mid-way.

_Important…? Tsk, but yes they are… somehow…? _ thought he while perfectly remembering the times where he had come to their rescue, and that without a care for who he had to fight against – Shiki the Golden Lion, Enies Lobby, the Ice Witch…

"I mean, I don't really…" tried he again, before stopping once more in the middle of his declaration.

_Care…? Tsk, but yes I do… somehow…? _thought he while considering there was even one he cared enough to refuse to fight against her even though she was officially an enemy.

"Mwell…" jested the old cow-boy with an amused glance for his interlocutor, at seeing the pirate so honestly concerned by the matter, "But you know, youngster, there's a really good way of knowing is a girl is really special to you…"

"Hey?" instinctively reacted Zoro while turning himself towards his interlocutor, his momentary depression backing off at finding there a way to clarify his thoughts, "Which one?"

"Among all these girls… for which one are you reading to do something to get to know her better…?" hinted the old cow-boy with the air of a mentor teaching his young disciple the ultimate arcana, "Not just staying there and looking at her, but asking her, going after her, sharing something with her!"

"So… something…?" repeated Zoro while arching a perplexed eyebrow, a bit dumbfounded by how simple and yet difficult the advice sounded.

"Don't know… time, maybe?" suggested the old cow-boy, with a vague gesture of the hand.

Mentally, the bubble representing Nami evaporated and disappeared from Zoro's mind, soon followed by Vivi's bubble.

_Yeah, Nami… We kind of respect each other…but if I could spend LESS time with her, that would be heaven! _thought he with a resigned sigh for their manipulating and ranting navigator, _And Vivi is back to her country and I never thought about crossing Grand Line back to go and see her again, hum…_

"A dream, maybe…?" suggested once more the old cow-boy, slowly gulping down a bit of whiskey from his flask between his suggestions.

In Zoro's mind, the bubble representing Tashigi had slowly vanished.

_Sure, I would be interested in knowing if she can become a great swordsman despite being a woman… but that's only because she looks like Kuina and says the same stupid things as her… _thought he while knowing for sure that he wasn't planning on doing anything on his own to contribute to the Marine's dreams.

"Secrets, maybe…?" suggested one last time the old cow-boy, eyeing the reaction of the green-haired swordsman to his advices.

The bubble containing Fuu's face slowly disappeared from Zoro's mind.

_I know she's hiding a lot of things, but… I just… feel like supporting her from a distance, nothing more, tsk… _thought he while knowing that despite all his concern and affection for the hazelnut-haired girl, he wasn't planning on being the one to force her to share her secrets with them.

"So, in the end…" spoke the old cow-boy after a couple of seconds of silence, "Do you have anyone left…?"

_So… in the end… _thought Zoro while trying his best to find a reason for the last bubble to vanish from his mind and let him in peace – a mind at peace and focusing on training and on his dream to become the best swordsman instead of worrying about a woman – _in the end… there is one left… one woman for whom I'd do efforts to know her better…_

The small and last bubble had now spread out in the whole of Zoro's mind, showing countless memories of a black-haired woman, collapsing after receiving a thunder-shock from a wanna-be God, crying while confessing she would like to live, offering him something he couldn't resist around a bonfire…

Zoro remained silent and clenched his teeth, before slowly raising his eyes from his joined hands to look straight in front of him, as if having found some resolve.

The old cow-boy chuckled, perfectly knowing that such an expression meant the _youngster_ had found his answer.

And all of a sudden, Zoro stood up in a quick screech of his wooden chair, and swiftly passed by everyone else to walk with quick footsteps towards the bar with a very determined expression.

With an amused smile on his side, the old cow-boy watched as the green-haired pirate grabbed the arm of the black-haired beauty who had lost against him at poker to force her to turn around and look his way, before dragging her behind him towards the wooden stairs leading to the upper floor, under the dumbfounded expression of her hazelnut-haired drinking buddy.

"Aah… Youngsters…" chuckled the old cow-boy while slowly gulping down more whiskey from his flask.

On their side, the rest of the Mugiwaras – excepting Fuu who had followed the scene with puzzled bewilderment – hadn't realised yet that they had just lost two of their nakamas for the rest of the night.

* * *

**AT THE WHITEBEARD'S PIRATES TABLE**

The revolving doors of the Saloon swung a brief second, letting in the tall silhouette of WhiteBeard's First Commander.

"What were you thinking, tsk…?" ranted Ace in low voice upon seeing his blond nakama drawing near.

"I could say the same, oy…" hinted Marco with a disapproving glance for his nakama, followed by a knowing glance for the remnants of a broken chair nearby them.

"What's your problem, in the end…? You're sending her in my arms and now you're going to lecture me for seizing the winning prize?" ranted Ace with a really angry tone as he was emptying his own tankard, "She's a girl like all the others, right? So I just have… I should just… she… tsk…"

Marco arched an eyebrow, mentally measuring up how much his nakama could have drunk to actually fling such blatant lies with the hope of convincing himself of them. He calmly dragged another chair from one hand and took a sit nearby him, before serving himself another tankard of whiskey.

"Well, if that's how you really feel… I say you should have accepted the invitation of these two girls, just now…" softly let escape the blond Commander with a knowing glance for the two cow-girls dismissed by Ace as he was walking towards their table.

"Humph…" sneered Ace with a sulking expression, flatly ignoring the remark and just drinking a bit more.

"Let's come down to business, Ace…" began Marco with a crooked smile for his neighbour who was gulping down whiskey with a very frustrated expression, "How long has it been since your fight with Teach? Some four, five months…?"

"Five and a half…" muttered Ace with an annoyed glance for his interlocutor, the mention of Teach having made his mind a bit – a lot – clearer.

"Hum, that much…" pursued Marco with an eerie teasing smile on his lips, "So taking into account your stay at Impel Down and then Marine Ford, it's safe to say you didn't do anything for that long, considering how you're keeping yourself for a certain girl ever since she appeared…"

TILT. Ace's eyes had widened and his cheeks flushed with anger and embarrassment at the hint.

"What are you coming at…?" screeched he after a few seconds of heavy silence.

"Just wanting to point out at something obvious: you seem quite on edge, oy…" mocked Marco with a very incisive glance for his nakama, the same nakama he had seen behaving quite insistently with the girl he had had on his lap an hour before, "And it seems to me that you're on the verge of making a huge mistake because of it…"

"What the…?" snapped Ace, really irritated by what his interlocutor was implying, "Just shut up! You don't know a thing…"

"Sure, sure…" laughed Marco, not the least impressed by the warning, "But just let me tell you that when your body and your mind don't agree on what they want, you'll probably end up doing something you'll bitterly regret afterwards… And having all your patient efforts ruined because of that is just too lame, so give me something funnier to watch at, heehee…"

"You… enjoy the situation, aren't you…?" roared Ace, shared between fury and weariness at seeing the expression of his nakama.

"Of course!" grinned Marco, "I'm eagerly waiting to see the first white hair you'll get for worrying so much about everything that concerns her, oy…"

"Yaro…!" sneered Ace, a vein still thumbing on his temple but his lips stretched in a crooked provoking smile.

But the sound of the piano got louder, delaying the rest of the charming conversation between the two Commanders to later.

The Mugiwaras had settled for a table near the scene, and were ordering more food and more alcohol every time Nami wasn't looking. And right now was the perfect moment since the mikan-haired navigator had stepped on the scene to grab the mike – for whatever reason she had, either the effects of alcohol or the talk she had just had with the diva.

And under the piano notes still played by Brook, she started singing:

_**I know how to hurt,  
I know how to heal,  
I know what to show,  
And what to conceal…  
I know when to talk,  
And I know when to touch,  
No-one ever die from wanting to much …**_

But the plan to make use of Nami's show time to empty her wallet was put on pause as her voice brought the attention of all her crewmates on her.

For everyone, it was the first time they were hearing their navigator's voice with such an… alluring tone. Even Luffy had forgotten the huge piece of meat in front of him to focus on the captivating song.

_**The world is not enough,  
But it is such a perfect place to start... my love  
And if you're strong enough,  
Together we can take the world apart... my love **_

Nami was now slowly progressing towards the table of her nakamas with lascivious dancing steps, her fascinating intonations and the swaying movements of her hips making all the male spectators drool with desire.

She then confidently kicked a chair out of her way and came to sit down on Luffy's lap, gazing ardently at him as her voice was turning conniving and inviting.

_**People like us,  
Know how to survive,  
There's no point in living,  
If you can't feel the life…  
We know when to kiss,  
And we know when to kill,  
If we can't have it all,  
Then nobody will…**_

The words of the verse had sounded like a confidence at Luffy's ear, and all the surrounding cow-boys were now biting their handkerchiefs with jealousy for not being the lucky ones to have such a mikan-haired beauty on their lap.

Luffy, on his side, had switched from dumbfounded expression for not understanding why Nami was making a show of herself, to a serious satisfied one at having her sitting on his chair. And without thinking twice, he had placed his hands behind her back to hold her onto him, just to be sure she wasn't going to offer the same dance to another spectator.

_**The world is not enough,  
But it is such a perfect place to start...my love  
And if you're strong enough,  
Together we can take the world apart...my love **_

The last chorus was sung at a mere centimetres from Luffy's face, Nami gazing ardently in the eyes of the one who had preferred food over her for the major part of the evening and wasn't going to get away with it without a counter-attack. And it was invitation enough for the young captain to go and steal away the lips of the singer as soon as she had finished her verse, his elastic fingers running through the hair of his navigator to give her a passionate kiss.

CLAP. The whole room trembled with laughter and applaud, the whole of the cow-boys present definitely enjoying having some pirate couples to animate their evening.

_Hihihi… _laughed Fuu from the distance, _No need for scandal to make the spectators happy in the end…! Nami and Luffy just look great together, without having to force themselves… Clow would be in Seventh Heaver at seeing that, and no doubt he would take note of every little detail for his future LuNa fanfic, hihi…_

_Yes, they make a cute… couple… huh…?_

Her soft laugh gradually deadened, and she gazed as the dancing lights on the surface of the liquid occupying her glass with shared feelings.

"Love problems, sweetheart…?" rose a feminine voice from the other side of the counter.

TILT. Fuu raised her eyes towards her interlocutor.

And anthropomorphic female duck with beautiful golden hair and lovely hair accessories was standing near the bar, clearing the desk and carrying a tray covered with used glasses and tankards.

"Miss Goldie…" smiled Fuu with a weary expression at recognizing another one of the characters she had read about in comics when she was a child.

"So… are you going to talk about it or are you planning on playing around with your glass without even taking a sip from it?" pursued the female duck with a conniving wink for her hazelnut-haired customer – not even twitching at being called by her first name by a stranger, for she was used to customers calling her that way.

"Still debating on this one…" stirred Fuu with a knowing glance for the glass of Bourbon she had ordered for pretending – quite unable to ask for a glass of juice in a Saloon where she was still supposed to behave like a pirate, "And respecting to love affairs… how about you?"

Fuu eyes shifted towards the other anthropomorphic duck – the male one – who was sitting at a table nearby, with a free glass of water for only order, and apparently busy discussing business with other prospectors.

"I think you know exactly how it is, hihihi…" smiled the golden-haired waitress at speaking from experience for having similar trouble with the one special to her as her hazelnut-haired customer, before veering towards a more general statement, "Men… Tsk, a bunch of perverts coming at you with only one thought… So just take whatever they can offer you without getting engrossed by it! And don't lower your pride for any of them! They're not worth it…"

"Hum, I'll keep it in mind…" answered Fuu with a forced smile, the advice turning into a stinging feeling in her chest despite herself.

"Except if you think you've found one worth it…?" asked Goldie with a cunning and perceptive smile.

DOKI. Fuu's eyes widened in shame and she felt her cheeks feel hotter at the hint.

She instinctively raised her hand and emptied her glass in one go, as if hoping to use her drink to recover some poise.

But she only felt a burning feeling – for the second time of the evening after the chilli pepper – as the Bourbon run down her throat and made her wince at remembering it wasn't for nothing that she disliked alcohol and never drunk.

"Hihihi… I see, I see… Good luck, then, sweetheart…" wished Goldie with a compassionate smile for her hazelnut-haired customer before leaving the bar with a tray filled with new orders.

_Kof… Kof kof… _inwardly chocked Fuu at trying not to make a scene, even if her body was gasping for air after having gulped down a beverage it was definitely not used to assimilate.

And when the spasms finally calmed down, she saw Goldie had left to go and serve the tables around the scene. She crooked a faint smile at seeing from the distance that Sanji was putting on a strange show in front of the golden-haired waitress, his eyes in heart-shape while he was singing 'Mellorine' at one time, and the second after he was back to a serious perplexed one while obviously trying to convince himself that the beautiful woman was a DUCK. But soon enough, his love-love mode was back, followed by his serious mode again, and so forth and so forth…

_Oh my… _paused Fuu in front of such a sight.

Her eyes wandered on the table of her nakamas, who all seemed to enjoy their evening to the fullest.

_So what now…? _thought Fuu with a melancholic look for her own situation, _Luffy and Nami are happy, everyone is partying… Robin disappeared and I didn't even have time to talk with her about this 'Princess' idea of hers… Anne is apparently busy and is leaving me alone, so I guess the plan is called off… Ace is… is…_

Without really wanting it, Fuu's wandering eyes had stopped on Ace's back, who was still sitting at the table at the other end of the room, chatting and drinking with his nakamas.

A couple of seconds flew by in silence as she was gazing at the familiar silhouette, when suddenly:

BAM. Fuu's hands both ended on her cheeks as she slapped herself hard to order herself not to let her mind wander and regain composure, before cursing herself for having hit too hard when feeling her cheeks burn with pain.

_Ouch… Well, serves me right… _thought she while beginning to feel dizzy because of the Bourbon, _Anyway, everything is fine, so I can just leave and go and spend the rest of the night on the Sunny or somewhere else… I should just…_

But Fuu's projects were unfortunately doomed as soon as they had barely formed themselves, for when she stood up to cross the room, she suddenly caught wind of a music air she knew.

_Wait a sec… _thought she while turning around to glance at the scene.

Luffy had stepped on the scene, grabbing the mike in one hand and asking Brook for a swinging cow-boy song, quite determined to make the whole room party harder.

_**If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe,  
I'd been married long time ago,  
Where did you come from where did you go,  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe…**_

_**Yee-Haw!**_

_Oh my… _thought Fuu without being able to repress a smile at hearing the lively song sung with such contagious enthusiasm.

Luffy had started tapping his feet on the wooden scene, beating the rhythm while holding out his hand towards Nami to invite her to come and join the dance.

A few burst of laugher chimed in at seeing the pirate end up with knots on his elastic arms after having missed a change of arms when making his dancing partner turn, and Luffy made a funny puzzled face while trying to undo the mess, but without losing any energy.

"Hey, Fuu!" called he towards his hazelnut-haired nakama, "Do you know a funny dance on that song too?"

_On Cotton Eye Joe…? Of course… _inwardly giggled Fuu while remembering the crazy and lively dance steps which were customary on such song, back in the Real World.

"Come on!" encouraged Luffy with his trade-mark contagious grin.

_Huh…? And who am I supposed to be, now…? The choreographer of the future Pirate King…? It can't be serious, hihihi… _grinned she for herself while remembering that Luffy had become quite accustomed to ask her to find him dance steps ever since Fimbul rock-n'-roll lesson.

"Coming…" smiled she while definitely abandoning her plan of running away from the Saloon in the wake of the happy-child-like smile of her temporary captain.

_After all, I'll probably do less worse at that job than at being an actress for a Yonkou spying game…_

_**I'd been married long time ago,  
Where did you come from where did you go,  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe…**_

Fuu had run towards Nami and Luffy, swiftly jumping on the scene to go and twirl with them in a round-dance, before showing them how to dance two by two, arm in arm, before changing rotation sense at each new notable beat time in the song.

Nami was giggling like crazy, Luffy's elastic arm making the dance even more unpredictable than it already was.

Everyone had gradually joined in, the spins of the dance making alcohol rise to everyone's head and making laughter more and more high-pitched, from cow-girls and cow-boys alike.

And Fuu was grinning widely, as she was seeing nearly everyone in the room joining in under Luffy's entailing voice which was endlessly repeating the lively but with not-really-varying lyrics of the country song.

_**I'd been married long time ago,  
Where did you come from where did you go,  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe…**_

_**I'd been married long time ago,  
Where did you come from where did you go,  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe…**_

_**I'd been married long time ago,  
Where did you come from where did you go,  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe…**_

Amidst the delirium of dancers with ecstatic expressions of children enjoying themselves to the fullest, Fuu suddenly saw a hand being presented to her: the hand of a Second Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet who had crossed the crowd of twirling couples – greatly helped by a kick of Anne in his chair to push him to _move his ass to go and see the one he wanted to be with _– ignoring on his way the invitations to dance of a couple of cow-girls and tavern girls to hold his hand to her with a shared expression.

_Ace…?_

_**He brought a disaster wherever he went,  
The hearts of the girls were to hell, broken sent…  
They all ran away so nobody would know,  
and left only men 'cause of Cotton-Eye Joe!**_

_**Yee-Haw!**_

But Luffy's verse had lost itself in the midst of some Bourbon rising to Fuu's head and of her usual disposition to naively care more about dancing than about the agenda of her dancing partners.

She held out her hand to Ace with nearly no second thought, and her gesture made his lips stretch with relief as he determinedly pulled her towards him with indescribable happiness to make her spin at full speed with him on the wooden floor of the scene.

_**I'd been married long time ago,  
Where did you come from where did you go,  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe…**_

Fuu was laughing like a light-hearted teenager in the round-dance of this new chorus sung by Luffy, and Ace was grinning as widely, starting to bless Anne's kick for how simple it could be to be happy once you knew what you truly wanted.

_**I'd been married long time ago,  
Where did you come from where did you go,  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe…**_

The second part of the dance had now started under Fuu's lead, who was showing Luffy and all the other couples how to create a huge tunnel with arms risen as an arch to make other couples of dancers pass under them before reopening the gate at the other end, thus creating an endless round.

The little procession of dancers started crossing the Saloon, the loud laugher of cow-boys mixing with the giggles of even the waitresses who had gotten caught in the show.

_**I'd been married long time ago,  
Where did you come from where did you go,  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe…**_

"Ace…!" called Fuu with an enthusiastic smile while grabbing his hands to make him follow her under the long arch-way made by the other pairs of dancers.

DOKI. Ace felt blood rush through his body, even quicker than usual thanks to the help of all the whiskey he had taken in ever since the beginning of the evening.

_**I'd been married long time ago,  
Where did you come from where did you go,  
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe…**_

He gazed at his partner across the arch they were making with their arms to let the other dancers pass through once they had arrived at the tunnel exit. Fuu was giving him one of the sweetest and most addictive smiles he could have seen – for whoever smiles he really cared enough to remember them.

Her smile, her thin fingers locked in his, her cheeks slightly red with the euphoria of the dance and the Bourbon, the cleavage of her dress which was still missing its two pearl buttons…

_Something more… _couldn't help but crave Ace, as they were diving under the arch-way once again for their turn of the round-dance.

_**He brought a disaster wherever he went,  
The hearts of the girls were to hell, broken sent…  
They all ran away so nobody would know,  
and left only men 'cause of Cotton-Eye Joe!**_

_**Yee-Haw!**_

Ace's fingers locked more strongly in Fuu's, pulling them and their owner towards him as they were progressing under the tunnel made by the arms of the dancer.

TILT. Fuu froze as she felt Ace's lips brush hers in a failed tentative, while the song was keeping on to invite the couple of dancers to continue towards the exit of the tunnel.

Blood flew away from her face as her expression crumbled and she gazed empty-mindedly at her dancing partner.

Ace's face drew closer again to hers, determinedly repeating the move he had just missed… until it met emptiness.

Fuu had let go of Ace's hands and rushed until the other end of the tunnel as she was fighting hard to keep her mind from exploding due to the emotional overload.

_Danger… danger! Run away… run away from a… playboy… Casanova…_

"Fuu!" shouted Ace at reaching the end of the tunnel just after her but missing her hand to catch her back as she was running further until the swing-doors of the Saloon.

FLUUT. Ace could only watch, helpless, as Fuu had spread out her wings as soon as she had reached the exit, disappearing in a flutter of wings in the dark night, disappearing out of his field of vision in a mere second.

_Hopeless… I'm hopeless… So stupid… _cursed Fuu while hiding her face in her knees and arms once she had sit on the roof of the Saloon, out of reach, _What should I do…? What should I… Tsk, I'm so stupid…_

And while Fuu was trying to sort out the mess caused by a confused mind and a heart she was refusing to listen to – the whole peppered by her pride which had been quite encouraged by a perceptive Diva and duck waitress along the evening – Ace had let himself fall on his chair at the WhiteBeard's Pirates table before asking the bar-tender for something stronger than whiskey – and even Anne hadn't insisted on the topic.

The rest of the room, on their side, was fully enjoying their evening under the lead of an everlastingly enthusiastic Luffy.

The moon crossed the sky as the hours counted down themselves… and finally set far at the horizon, beyond the dusty desert…

* * *

**EL DORADO, HIGH STREET, DAWN**

The warm gust of wind of an already hot morning lifted Fuu's hair-curls as she was standing up on the Saloon's roof to gaze absent-mindedly at the rising sun which was already warming her skin after the coolness of the night.

"Hum… In the end, I spent the rest of the night hiding here…" sighed Fuu while stretching her arms and her wings.

_This role Marco gave me brought me a lot of problems, in the end… _thought she while letting the morning breeze wash away the embarrassing memories from the night before, along the last remnants of the Bourbon taste between her lips, S_omehow it's my fault for having lost sight of the limits, even if Ace could have helped instead of abusing the situation to tease me more than usual…_

_Sigh, Anne could have given me some tips for the role while keeping my distance… And also, a certain singer and a certain duck waitress didn't help making my situation clearer…_

"F.U.U…" shouted a familiar voice from under her, pulling her from her thoughts.

"Luffy…?" smiled Fuu while softly jumping down the roof in a flutter of wings to land on the High Street ground, in front of her temporary captain.

"Shishishi… You're not with Ace?"

TILT. Fuu's face hardened a bit but she forced herself to smile when answering.

"No, but I can go and look for him, if you need." offered she with what she wanted to be her usual enthusiasm.

_It's fine, it's normal for Luffy to think I would be with Ace… It's nothing special, definitely nothing… _was mentally convincing herself Fuu, _Going and look for him is just something I would do for any of my nakamas… So yesterday has nothing to do with it, I decided to forget about it and to act normally, so come on…_

_Yes, let's act normally, the normal relationship of two nakamas! Pirate libertinage is nothing much, come on… I shouldn't take it heart, it's nothing much… definitely nothing…_

"Yeah, we need the both of you, and Robin too, because Nami wants to go back to the mines today!" specified Luffy with a wide grin at the thought of another adventure to the mine.

"I see…" thought Fuu with a weary drop of sweat appearing on her forehead as her mind had quickly processed that Robin plus Ace plus her plus the mines meant that Nami was planning on making them work hard again for more gold extraction, instead of just going there to recover their already registered gold.

_Maybe we shouldn't have shown her this extraction method… it's a bit too easy for HER, in the end… I also hope Franky has reinforced the load the Sunny can bear, because if it keeps going on, we'll have some tons of supplementary freight when departing… sigh…_

But in front of Luffy's enthusiastic grin, Fuu could only smile back and promise him to meet them in front of the Saloon as soon as she will have found her two other nakamas.

Luffy nodded energetically and left to go and meet with Nami, while Fuu was making her wings disappear before entering the Saloon.

She found Robin already awake and sitting at the bar, reading as usual and calm and composed as usual, and quickly exposed her Nami's plans, in low voice in order not to wake up the shop-keeper who had fallen asleep on the bar-desk, his hands still half-wiping a glass.

Robin nodded in agreement and calmly closed her book and put it back in her bag before walking towards the swing doors, dodging on her way the tankard a sleeping cow-boy had made roll over from the table he had collapsed onto.

On her side, Fuu rapidly inspected the sleepers, expecting to find Ace bubbling in one of his narcoleptic naps on a table too, but no sign of him.

At scratching her cheek in a perplex expression, Fuu noticed the glow of the pearl on her right wrist, and with a faint smile, obeyed to message of the Vivre Card and turned to walk towards the stairs, climbing up until the corridor of the rooms.

* * *

**MEANWHILE, IN ROOM #3**

_Humph… _grumbled Ace while blinking his eyes open, his mouth still sticky with the taste of whiskey, _Ouch… I really drank too much, yesterday…_

Painfully frowning to finally gather his focus, Ace's vision finally became stable.

TILT. His eyes widened at suddenly seeing a thin hands with gracious fingers laying on his torso, on his left side.

TILT. At averting his eyes from this vision, he ended up this time on a prominent cleavage on his right side.

_WHAT WITH THIS? _inwardly shouted Ace, his eyes bumping out of their sockets at realizing he wasn't dreaming and that the owners of the hand and the boobs were two cow-girls in sexy outfits sleeping right next to him and even cuddling onto him.

Ace shook his head from left to right, before finally letting it collapse back on the pillow for having forgotten that shaking your head when you were having a hangover wasn't the best idea ever.

_W…wait a second… _thought he while blinking his eyes once more, as if hoping to clear up his memory in the process, but it didn't make the two girls in his arms disappear, _Let's… try and think about it…_

But as if to remind you not to disturb it while it was painfully recovering from the abuse of whiskey from the night before, his head only sent him a long and painful screech and a lot of black dots to cover his vision, and didn't obey the order of 'thinking'.

_Ouch… Yeah, thanks for leaving me on my own on this one… _inwardlyranted Ace against himself, _Let's see… these girls… I don't remember them… It's not that it would be the first time I woke up with random girls in my bed, but usually I remember having brought them in this bed… or at least I remember Marco having sent them in my room… and Marco stopped sending girls to me for some months, now, so…_

The thought of Marco's name brought back some puzzling recollection of the conversation from the night before, and Ace frowned deeply in dissatisfaction. He stared at the two girls all over him with insistence, and small pieces of memories slowly brought themselves together, giving him the fuzzy feeling he had seen them the night before, and that they were even the same two girls who had given him a naughty invitation… and not only once.

_The same girls… that Marco told me I shouldn't have ignored…_

The crooked smile of his nakama popped up amidst black dots in his field of vision, vague remnant of a small lecture on not ignoring what one's body wants even if the heart disagrees.

_Something stupid… hum…? Wait a second, did I ended up doing something stupid…?_

Ace painfully raised his head, shooting a glance at his situation and at the girls.

_Clothes are still on…_ noticed he with a shared feeling, perfectly knowing that in some cases, his and the girl's clothes could stay on for the entire thing.

At that very precise moment, Ace would have loved to ask his body if it was now feeling relieved of the frustration accumulated for the past few months, but the only signal he was receiving was the one of a painful hangover and his memory was apparently teasing him by staying as blank – or rather in the dark – as it could be on the past hours.

And even Marco would have been unable to clear up the situation, since he had not been the one to send the two cow-girls to his bedroom. Actually, after Fuu had abandoned Ace on the dance-floor and left the Saloon, these two girls had congratulated themselves for their luck, for they hadn't left Ace out of their sight for the whole evening, eyeing him with desire and quite interested in making him prove his reputation, even if their first strategy with the Saloon singer had failed in separating the object of their desire from its infamous partner. And later at night, when Ace had finally left his nakamas to go to the room he still had the key for, and had collapsed on the bed, completely drunk, the two girls had waited for an adequate moment to discreetly follow him upstairs and enter his room, hoping he would accept to enjoy the rest of his night with them.

But their plan unfortunately failed – once more – when they didn't manage to wake him up, be it by using their charms or by shaking him up in quite a violent fashion – temper they threw after seeing their pride as sexy women being hurt by the disinterest of their narcoleptic target. But in vain… So with a sulk, they had finally laid on his side, quite determined to 'convince' him on morning to make honour to his reputation when he will finally wake up… except that they were the ones who had fallen deeply asleep and missed the right timing, leaving their prey with no invitation or explanation whatsoever…

"Tsk…" ticked his tongue Ace with an annoyed expression, looking from left to right as if hoping to find in the room something that could tell him what to do with the two girls he had on his hands – literally – when he heard a soft knock on the door.

* * *

**SALOON, SECOND FLOOR, CORRIDOR BORDERING THE ROOMS**

"Ace…?" called Fuu with a faint smile, her finger knocking on the door, "Ace, are you awake…?"

A bit perplexed, Fuu gazed at her bracelet to ascertain she was in front of the right room.

_Is he still sleeping…? Don't tell me I'll need and wake him up? Even Marco is having trouble with that…_

"Ace, I'm coming in, okay…?" tried she once more while slowly pushing the wooden panel.

The young sunlight coming from the Saloon main room windows shine through the opening, enlightening the bedroom.

SHIN. Fuu froze at the door-step.

From his bed, Ace gazed at her with eyes still blank with surprise and a mind still slow to process due to whiskey abuse.

He saw as the hazelnut-haired girl's face crumbled in front of the sight, colours running away from her face as her lips were trembling without uttering a single word.

Long seconds flew by in silence, Ace finding himself suspended at Fuu's smallest reaction.

He saw her eyes blink as Fuu was fighting hard to regain composure, and she bit her inferior lip to the blood to try and make some colours come back in her livid face, before forcing a faint and ephemeral empty smile on her lips.

"Nami wanted our help to go back extract some gold at the mines, this morning…" finally spoke Fuu in a tone she had wanted lively but which sounded blank and shaking at each intonation, "I… So… sorry to have disturbed you…"

The last sentence chimed in like a death bell for Ace.

His teeth clenched and his eyes twitched at seeing Fuu lower her eyes and turn heels, her face pale as if emptied of all emotion.

BAM. Fuu tripped at the door-step when clumsily pulling the door back after herself as she was leaving the door.

"FUU!" shouted Ace while jumping on his feet in a scramble, not even concerned by the two girls who tumbled down from her arms under the shock.

In sheer panic, he rushed towards the door, pulling it so precipitately that he nearly knocked himself off with the wooden panel – the bell of hangover ringing like crazy inside his head and making him lose his balance and miss the door frame – before running after the hazelnut-haired girl who had already reached the stairs.

"Fuu…" panted he with still a hoarse voice due to his hangover – or maybe something else – while grabbing her by both shoulder to force her to look his way.

But when Ace finally made Fuu turn around and pinned her against the wall of the staircase, what he could see made him forget breathing due to a stinging pain in his chest. Tears had welled up under Fuu's eyelids, tarnishing the light of her amber eyes with regrets and deception but while still refusing to flow down.

TILT. Adrenaline took over Ace's body, momentarily supplanting alcohol in his blood vessels.

"F… Fuu, I can explain!" blurted out Ace out of impulse, before realising that he didn't know himself what to explain, "I mean, it's… I… I mean, well you see…"

"No use, really… It's not that important…" softly interrupted Fuu, her tone as breakable yet clear as crystal, her arm drawing away from the catch of the one who had forced her to turn back, "I'll just tell Nami you're already… busy…"

TILT. At hearing such a fake sounding declaration while every cell of her body seemed to scream she actually cared, Ace's hands clenched more strongly on Fuu's shoulders.

"What you saw, it's… It's not… well, you weren't supposed to…" tried to retort Ace, completely lost himself on what he wanted to express first but desperate of making the veil of shadows disappear from Fuu's eyes, something he knew he was responsible of, regardless of what he was actually guilty of, "I didn't want to… I mean, these girls… these girls are… I don't know them, I don't care about them, they're…"

Fuu's eyes had hardened even more at hearing him saying he didn't care about these girls, and her teeth gradually tightened along the silent and unconscious resolution of never becoming part of such 'not-caring-about' lot.

"I see…" spoke she with disappointment making her voice tremble, even if she had expected herself to sound angrier but couldn't find a single crumb of anger in her heart, just plain sadness, "But it's okay, you know… I understand perfectly, so there is no use to justify yourself, Ace…"

"No, you… you…" muttered Ace, completely puzzled and not getting her point, but seeing in her eyes that things were getting worst.

"It's fine, so can you… let go of me…?" asked Fuu while lowering her eyes to avoid her interlocutor's gaze.

TILT. In Ace's mind still congested by whiskey abuse, the last question sounded like an ultimatum to an ending he didn't want to see happening.

His heart started beating like crazy, as he was feeling the situation was escaping him.

"Do… do you hate me…?" blurted he in a whisper, as if the worries deep inside his heart had found their way until his lips without passing through his brain for processing before.

SHIN. Fuu paused a second, completely taken aback by the question.

But polling her feelings to find an answer wasn't doing her any good in the current precarious condition her heart was in.

"It's… I… Of course not…" answered she with a confused tone while looking somewhere else to try and keep countenance as her heart was yelling to try and tell her something she was obviously refusing to listen to, "For something like that… It's not important, really…"

"Liar!" shouted Ace while feeling Fuu tremble under his hands of contained feelings, but fearing to ask what they were, "If it's not, why are you on the verge of crying, then…?"

TILT. The rhetorical question made Fuu's eyes widen in shame and she swallowed back with difficulty.

"I'm… I'm not… I just… it's… I apologize for… for having disturbed you" tried Fuu with her most convincing tone, but still unable to look at her interlocutor in the eyes, "I… I've been quite ill-mannered to barge in your room like that and I… I just…"

"You really don't know how to lie…" snapped Ace while clenching his teeth and drawing closer to Fuu to try and look in her eyes.

But Fuu was running away from his eyes despite how much energy he was putting in trying to face her, making him feel more and more unsecure and making some bitter feeling spread more and more inside him.

"Do you…" begged he when finally managing to grab Fuu's chin with one hand while pinning her on the wall with the other to force her to look at him, "Do you hate me, now…?"

"I don't…" confessed Fuu with a broken voice at seeing the obsidian eyes gaze at her so seriously, but unable to erase the after-image of him in bed with two sexy cow-girls a mere minute before, "I won't… I won't ever hate you… I just can't…"

Fuu's eyes had fallen under the shadow of her hair, and her voice was still trembling as she was speaking so low it felt like she was talking to herself.

"It's myself I hate…" murmured she with a discouraged tone, a vague memory about some _don't get engrossed with it _words from a golden-haired duck waitress chiming in her mind, "But it's fine… It was my fault all along, so… don't concern yourself with me…"

Ace's eyes widened as he didn't trust his ears for what he had just heard, his heart threatening to explode under the weight of the paradoxical feelings he was feeling at the moment: worry, guilt, relief but above all frustration.

The situation was escaping him and he could feel he was losing way more than what was showing. Words were turning meaningless, or at least the ones he was ready to pronounce were meaningless while the ones he knew he should say couldn't find their way until his lips.

_Tell her… _was murmuring a small voice in his mind, while another was saying: _Show her!_

Ace's fingers on Fuu's chin slowly brushed her skin and lifted her face towards his, as he was resolutely moving his lips towards hers, but just as they were going to join:

SCHLING. He brutally bumped into a light shield.

Past the first second of surprise, Acee could only watch, abashed, that tears had started running down on Fuu's cheeks – quite despite herself – on the other side of the screen.

And without a single word, the hazelnut-haired girl shot a reproachful and quailed glance to him, before silently slipping away and running down the stairs.

_Fuu… Fuu used… her power… against me?_ realized Ace while clenching his fists and punching the wooden wall out of frustration, before grabbing the railing of the stair to find support as adrenaline was slowly drawing back, letting the queasiness of his hangover come back at full speed.

But as Fuu was reaching the swing-doors:

BAM. They flung open to let enter a panting cow-boy.

"ALERT! The Beagle Boys broke open the Sheriff's office and stole the gold!" shouted he out-of-breath.


	36. Story V, Replay, SongFic Ace

**Credits:** Lyrics of the song: "Wait For You" by Elliott Yamin from Tor Erik Hermansen, Mikkel Eriksen & Taj Jackson under the label Stargate |Original Song on Youtube: watch?v=XimEfVCLv7o

* * *

**oOo REPLAY oOo**

...

Ace ~Wait for You~

…

**NEW WORLD, EL-DORADO, SALOON, ROOM #3**

"Tsk…"

_And just what am I supposed to do with these two girls I have on my hands, hum? _

BAM. BAM.

_A soft knock on the door…?_

"Ace…?"

_Fuu…?_

"Ace, are you awake…? I'm coming in, okay…?"

_The door opening, sunlight shining in… Tsk, I really have a serious hangover, for my eyes to blink like that and… W… wait a sec… Fuu… Fuu's face blanked out…_

Long seconds flying by in silence.

_W… why…? W… wait… just… what is…_

"Nami wanted our help to go back extract some gold at the mines, this morning…"

_Her voice… feels empty…?_

"I… So… sorry to have disturbed you!"

_Di… disturbed…? Just… WHAT? Oh crap, wait! It's not… she thinks… but I…!_

BAM.

_Th… the door…! Fuu… FUU…_

"FUU!"

* * *

_**I never felt anything in the world like this before,**_

BAM.

_Two girls falling down on the floor… why would I care? My head spinning like crazy and telling me to go back to bed to sleep my hangover off… why would I care?_

_More important… catch her back!_

"Fuu…"

_Fuu…_

DOKI.

_Ugh… Don't give me that look, don't… don't look like you're about to break down because I caught you… Don't…_

_**Now I'm missing you,  
And I'm wishing that you would come back through my door.**_

_And just shut up my heart, I know she's like that because… of me… I knew the very second she pulled the door behind her… but I… I just couldn't… I need to tell her…_

"What you saw, it's… It's not… well, you weren't supposed to…"

_It's a misunderstanding, come on! Don't make that face, I never…_

_Wait, can I really say that…? Can I…? I don't even know myself, for these girls… But I don't care about them! I've never cared much about any other girl ending up in my bed before, anyway… so just… just…_

_**Why did you have to go?**_

_**You could have let me know,  
So now I'm all alone,**_

_Just don't make that face… Why is she avoiding my eyes…? Why is she giving me that kind of answers…?_

"It's okay, you know… I understand perfectly, so there is no use to justify yourself, Ace… It's fine, so can you… let go of me…?"

TILT.

_Let… her… go…_

A bitter taste spreading between my teeth.

_She hates me…? Does she hate me…?_

SNAP.

_What the heck? She left me there as if she didn't care at all, but now she's trembling and obviously lying, are you kidding me? What's happening? And don't say it's not my problem, damn it!_

"You really don't know how to lie… Do you hate me, now…?"

_Tell me she doesn't hate me, I… I… I want her to tell me!_

"I don't…"

_She… she doesn't…_

DOKI.

_But then why… why is she ready to cry…?_

_**Girl you could have stayed  
but you wouldn't give me a chance**_

_How can she tell me she doesn't hate me but still look that way?_

"It was my fault all along, so… don't concern yourself with me…"

_Her… fault…?_

_What the…? Just what is going on in her mind, I don't get it! Concern… Of course I'm concerned! She looks like she's about to cry, and it's because of me… She says she doesn't hate me but she's running away from me… She says she doesn't care but she can't even lie correctly…_

_I want… I just want to…_

"_Tell her…"_ whispers a voice in my head.

"_Show her…"_ advices another.

_**With you not around it's a little bit more than I can stand.**_

_Showing her…_

SCHLING.

My lips bumping into a light shield, cold, hard, shining sadly…

_What the… Fuu's shield…? Fuu… Fuu used… her power… against ME?_

_**And all your tears they keep running down my face  
Why did you turn away?**_

_Tears…!_

_N… w… wait! I… I…_

DASH. A fleeting silhouette running down the stairs.

_Damn it!_

_T… tears… I… and it's my fault… and the worst is I can't even remember Fuu crying even once ever since I know her and now…_

_Now I feel like they're not stopping, these tears… Why? Even when she's not standing in front of me anymore, it's just… And there's this weird bitter taste in my mouth… as if I was crying inside too…_

* * *

_**So why does your pride make you run and hide?**_

BAM.

My fist denting the wooden wall.

_DAMN IT!_

_WHY? Just… just why? I should have… should have… Why am I always messing up things? Why can't she just trust me, trust my feelings?_

TILT. Reminiscences from the evening before.

_Tsk… How could she trust me…? When in her mind I'm apparently nothing better than a serial lover… and somehow, I didn't even show her wrong yesterday… I just wanted to tease her a little but I ended up doing her the same meaningless things I've been doing to other girls before…_

A vague advice flashing back "You'll end up making a mistake you'll regret".

SNAP.

_Yeah, I more than regret it now…! Of course I wanted her, I still want her… I can't even manage to know if I did something with these two cow-girls last night because my whole body is only craving for her, tsk…_

_But what about her… for me…?_

_**Are you that afraid of me?**_

_Why is she looking that devastated every time I'm getting closer to her? Why can't she take my kissing her or the rest seriously? Why does she look so sad and run away?_

_**But I know it's a lie what you keep inside.**_

_Why is she saying such stupid lies like 'she doesn't care' while she cares enough to cry for it? Why is this idiot always pretending she's fine when she's not…?_

_When it's obvious for everyone – even that Baka-Otouto – that I'm a bit special to her… why? What does she want, damn it?_

_**This is not how you want it to be…**_

TILT.

_Or is it just… my fault…?_

_My fault because… even if I know she despises playboys, I'm still playing a bit with her because I find it amusing… because even if I know she's afraid of getting closer, I'm still pulling her to me… because even if I know she doesn't trust my feelings, I'm still not clearly telling her the truth because I'm the one afraid of her answer…?_

_So in the end… even if I know she doesn't want it like that… I'm just the one being pushy…?_

BAM. My hand grabbing the railing to counter dizziness.

_Ugh… throbbing nauseas and black dots… speak about the worst timing for my hangover to wake up!_

* * *

Swinging doors opening wide on a messy cloud of dust.

Thieves have run down the High Street, according to the huge bustle of cow-boys pressing themselves outside.

_Where is she…?_

TILT. My eyes catching sight of a hazelnut-haired silhouette.

…

Words choking down into my throat…

_What am I supposed to tell her…? "Sorry"…? Yeah, sure, I really regret the way I behaved with her yesterday and this morning but…_

Images rushing through my head: unknown girls, tears, black memory…

Hesitation…

_Should I… rush to her to apologize…? Should I hold her…? Should I yell to her she's the only one for me…? While I might have spent the night with two other random girls and not even remember it? What would that make me look like, tsk… Kakkowarui…_

Insecurity…

_What about her…? What does she think about it…? What would she like to hear from me…? What am I supposed to do not to make things worse?_

_**So Baby I will wait for you,  
Cause I don't know what else I can do…**_

_Should I wait…? Wait to see how things are going on, on her side…?_

On her side, a calm composure when everyone else is erupting over the robbery.

_Does she really care so little about what happened that she recovered in a couple of minutes…? Or is it that she's once more quite good at hiding her real feelings…?_

TILT. Eyes making contact… before running away.

_Second option… I knew it…_

_**Don't tell me I ran out of time,  
If it takes the rest of my life…**_

_What am I supposed to do if she doesn't even leave me the opportunity to apologize…? Don't tell me it's too late? Don't tell me she doesn't even want to look at me anymore?_

Panic… worry… but a pair of amber eyes finally rising towards me.

A faint blush on her cheeks and a shared expression.

_She… she seems to… Well, she has some reasons to be mad at me, it's true, but… Grr…_

_She can hate me, it's fine! But then, I want her to get angry at me, to show SHE CARES! Is that asking too much…? Tsk, is it something that will never happen…? How stupid, I can't seriously be wishing for her to be irritated at me…? Well, sure it's better than her ignoring me, but… I'm seriously crazy, sigh…_

A faint smile on her hesitating lips.

TILT.

_**Baby I will wait for you,  
If you think I'm fine it just ain't true…**_

_She… smiled…?_

_Why? I was the one who made her cry and she looks at me as if I'm the one who needs to be comforted, tsk… But then… it means… means she cares, then? She must definitely care, right?_

_She's keeping her distance for now, but this smile is encouragement enough, right? If I wait long enough, she'll eventually turn my way, despite everything… right…?_

My lips trembling in hesitation.

_It was my fault for playing around with her and hoping it will make her fall onto my lap like any other girl… so… it's just fair, somehow… I can wait the time she needs… I'll just let it go her pace… I'll just… I just want her not to turn around!_

_She might think I'm a playboy for whom any girl would do, but she can't even imagine how bitter it feels to see her averting her eyes from me, tsk…_

_**I really need you in my life,  
No matter what I have to do I'll wait for you…**_

_Damn it…! Even if she doesn't answer my feelings now, I know I won't be able to turn away… She's just… she is just… Marco was right all along, she's just not like any other girl for me, and I perfectly know it…_

A faint smile in answer, for her.

_If the only way left is to wait… then it's decided…_

* * *

One of the thieves finally letting go of their hide-out location, this Baka-otouto's girlfriend running after them, everyone jogging towards the ranch… and her eyes lost as they always are when deep in thought.

_**It's been a long time since you called me,  
(How could you forget about me)**_

_What could she be thinking about…? For some reason, I hope and fear it would be about me… or maybe I'm just blinding myself with wishful thinking once more…_

_**You got me feeling crazy (crazy)**_

_I really can't get what is going through her mind… nor why she always seems to hesitate or why there is so much conflict in her eyes when she looks at me…_

_She's making me greedy, making me anxious, driving me crazy… and I can't even get a grasp of what is happening in HER heart…_

_**How can you walk away,**_

_Running just next to me but without giving me a single glance… Dragging behind as usual but not arguing with me about it as usual…_

A sulking nostalgic feeling…

_**Everything stays the same,  
I just can't do it Baby…**_

_I miss it, I already miss it… The way she's always around me, the way she's pestering when I tease her but still not averting her eyes from mine, the way she blushes and talk back to me but still smiles heart-fully… I miss it all!_

_**What will it take to make you come back?  
Girl I told you what it is and it just ain't like that…**_

_I already can't take it anymore…_

Mounting a horse while deep in thoughts.

Catching sight of a late silhouette arriving at the ranch while everyone else is already mounting the other horses available.

_I want her… I want her back!_

_Back as usual, back at my side…_

TILT. A sudden realization on the number of the horses and the number of riders.

_Should I… Should I get her back…?_

Hesitation…

_**Why can't you look at me, you're still in love with me,  
Don't leave me crying.**_

Holding out my hand… to her… trying to hide my insecurity under a smile.

"_Let's ride together" _suggests a voice in my head, but my lips are too afraid to pronounce it.

_W… will she take it…?_

* * *

_**Baby why can't we just start over again?**_

_Just like before… just the same as usual, I want her to look at me with a sulking face, and then fight with me to be the one guiding the horse…_

_**Get it back to the way it was…**_

_Just like before, I want her to look at me and give me one of her usual smiles…_

_**If you give me a chance I can love you right,**_

_Just leave me a chance to be like that again with you… I won't ask for more, I promise… Well, hum… at least I won't push you for it… I'll just… I'll wait, so just… just… just leave me a chance…_

_**But you're telling me it won't be enough…**_

Hesitation in her eyes, long seconds flying by in silence, a bitter feeling starting to invade my mouth.

…

_P… please take my hand…_

* * *

GRAB.

A slender hand being placed in mine.

DOKI.

_She… she…_

A wave of happiness spreading inside me like an electric spark, as I lift her up in front of me.

_**So Baby I will wait for you,  
Cause I don't know what else I can do…**_

_**Don't tell me I ran out of time,  
If it takes the rest of my life…**_

A smile spreading on my lips without me even controlling it.

_She accepted! She… accepted it!_

_**Baby I will wait for you,  
If you think I'm fine it just ain't true…**_

_**I really need you in my life,  
No matter what I have to do I'll wait for you…**_

_I wonder if she can hear my heart pouncing like crazy in my chest…? Does she realize how much it represents for me…?_

_Should I…? No, no no and NO! I said I'll wait patiently. I said I'll wait for her to be ready, tsk! I decided I won't make any more blunders by being pushy and forcing my wishes onto her, so just chill out, myself!_

_I said I'll wait!_

* * *

A ride in the desert at triple gallop after a bunch of thieves.

A gradual realization… and my smile fading away.

_She's not speaking to me… She's not even rising her eyes towards me…_

_**So why does your pride make you run and hide?**_

_**Are you that afraid of me?**_

A bitter taste spreading again in my mouth.

_She hasn't forgiven me at all, has she? She just accepted to ride with me because there wasn't much other possibility, did she…? or maybe because everyone else was looking and in a hurry, tsk…_

_**But I know it's a lie what you keep inside.**_

_**This is not how you want it to be…**_

_So in the end, she's making others' wishes come first and quiets down her own wished deep inside, once again…?_

My hands tightening around the reins out of frustration.

_How am I supposed to cope with that? How am I supposed to understand what is happening in her heart if she doesn't even show a bit of her real feelings?_

_**So Baby I will wait for you,  
Baby I will wait for you,**_

_**If it's the last thing I do…**_

A long sigh of resignation.

_Should I just be patient…? Should I just wait for her to open up…? Damn it, is that the only thing I can do?_

* * *

A disaffected section of the mines entering our view.

My passenger jumping on the ground as soon as I stopped the horse and dashing towards this Baka-otouto without a single glance back.

_Tsk…_

_**So Baby I will wait for you,  
Cause I don't know what else I can do…**_

_**Don't tell me I ran out of time,  
If it takes the rest of my life…**_

_Tsk… I can understand what is going on through Luffy's mind just now… I also agree with him, but…_

My fists turning white as I clench them to hold back the urge to enter the discussion.

_Patience, patience… Don't make a fuss now… don't make it worse by fighting with her right now…_

_**Baby I will wait for you,  
If you think I'm fine it just ain't true…**_

_**I really need you in my life,  
No matter what I have to do I'll wait for you…**_

Everyone entering the gallery to make some thieves regret to have stolen our gold, and among them a hazelnut-haired girl who now seems more focused on this expedition than on me…

_**I'll be waiting…**_

* * *

_**oOo**_

_**Authors' Note: **__We need to ask your comment on this chapter. Please tell to us if you like the concept 'Replay'. We will decide to put more of them in the future when we look at your reviews. Thank you._


	37. Story V, Quest, Trail 1

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

The Good, The Bad & the Ugly ~Part.1~

…

**NEW WORLD, EL DORADO, SALOON**

"ALERT! The Beagle Boys broke open the Sheriff's office and stole the gold!" called a cow-boy out-of-breath at flinging open the Saloon doors, awakening the rest of the room with his shouting.

TILT. Fuu had frozen in shock in front of the swinging doors.

_The Beagle Boys…? No way, they're here too? Tell me it's a bad dream! _inwardly exclaimed she, completely taken aback by the piece of news, _And they stole the gold from the Sheriff's office? W… wait a second… but in the Sheriff's office, there was also… the Gold Core! What a jinx!_

The seriousness of the situation having made her dry her tears and recover some composure, she dashed towards the exit, forgetting momentarily the scene with Ace to worry fully about the item she was supposed to recover.

_No way, NO WAY! When I left the roof to go and look for Ace and Robin some minutes ago, the Sheriff's office was perfectly fine at the other end of the High Street… but then this cow-boy said… Come on, it can't possibly happen that quickly? The thieves can't be that far away!_

And indeed, when she crossed the doors, it was just on time to see the last horse-riders with stripped outfits pass her by, the whole group leaving on their stake a thick cloud of sandy dust.

"They stole… the gold… OUR gold? They won't get away with that!" roared a feminine voice.

_Kof kof… Na… Nami?_

Amidst the blurry veil of dust, Fuu could vaguely distinguish the silhouette of the mikan-haired navigator who had stepped in, her ClimaTact already assembled in her hands.

_Nami? _panicked Fuu et seeing some horses graze her friend really close, in the chaos of the twirling dust and the mounts galloping at full speed.

But the swift navigator dodged them effortlessly, almost as if knowing beforehand their trajectory, before brandishing her ClimaTact and pinning it in the stomach of the last horse-rider.

"Thunder Bolt!" called Nami, particles of static electricity condensing in the air at full speed under the guidance of the ClimaTact before finally electrocuting the thief.

BAM. The burnt out Beagle Boy fall down his horse in a crackling thumb.

_Wow… _couldn't help but be impressed Fuu at seeing how much her nakama had improved ever since the last time she had seen her fighting for real, _How did she…?_

"Nami, BE CAREFUL!" shouted Fuu at suddenly seeing the mount of the thrown-down thief violently arch itself on its back legs to protest against the electric discharge it had received.

Nami raised her eyes on her left and they widened in fear at seeing the hooves of the horse swooping down on her.

BAM.

The horseshoes slammed onto the person who was standing under it.

Due to the shock, a straw hat rolled on the dusty ground before immobilizing at a small metre away from its owner.

"Luffy!" exclaimed Fuu with a deep sigh of relief at seeing that their captain had been the one to counter the hit.

"Luffy…" breathed Nami with both surprise and gratitude at seeing that her boyfriend had stepped in between the angry animal and herself.

Indeed, Luffy was now holding Nami by one arm onto him while he had blocked the buck with the other. And when he slowly raised his eyes towards the agitated animal, the horse instantly froze and stood still, instinctively calming down at feeling the thumbing pressure rising in the Haki of the elastic human who was glaring at it.

"I won't let you touch her…" uttered Luffy with the serious and unwavering tone he was rarely using but which was giving goose-bumps to even humans.

A cold draught centred around Luffy slowly made the surrounding dust float and twirl, propagating as an unstoppable wave around him.

The horse instinctively obeyed and kneeled down, lowering the head in sign of submission.

_Ha… haoushoku Haki…? _thought Fuu at gasping at the sight, while she couldn't help her own body to shiver in front of such a demonstration of charisma.

Luffy slowly held his free hand towards his straw hat, not leaving the animal out of his sight, his face hardened by determination.

"Luffy…" murmured Nami, captivated by this aspect of his personality.

He slowly turned his eyes towards her, his straw hat still in his hand.

"Tsk… What are you doing? You should think a bit before launching yourself in the middle of a big mess like that!" scolded he with a lecturing expression bordering on the sulk.

SHIN. Nami blinked, perfectly synchronized with Fuu in expressing how bewildered they could be to hear that kind of comments from Luffy of all people.

"Bu… but they stole our gold!" ranted Nami after having recovered composure at seeing a gold ball which had rolled from one of the saddle-bags hanging on both parts of the horse croup.

Her fingers tightened with rage around the ball of precious metal as she was glaring at the still-KO thief lying flat on the ground nearby.

"Baka!" grumbled Luffy while digging his straw hat on the head of his angry navigator, "You're more important than all the gold of Grand Line!"

SHIN. A small second of silence flew by…

_Oh my… _giggled Fuu at seeing Nami use the straw hat to hide a rare and unusual blush of embarrassed happiness at the declaration, _Only Luffy can say this kind of things and get away with it, hihihi… With such an honest grin, even the most embarrassing confessions can't sound sugary-fluffy between his lips… and it's a Shoujo manga fan testifying of it!_

Abandoning the cute little couple to their little scene, Fuu cautiously walked closer from the Beagle Boy defeated by Nami and who had been sent flying metres away from her under the shock. His eyes were still twirling in whirlpool shape, and a few remnant sparkles of electricity were still making his body twitch from times to others.

A bit farther, his horse had crouched, calm and quiet, tamed by Luffy's aura.

Fuu's eyes narrowed when she caught sight of the shiny golden content of one of the saddle-bags.

_They stole the gold… Thieves… in the Far-West… stole some gold…_

SNAP. Her fists balled up in frustration.

_Tsk! I should have known! I should have guessed! Why did I think the gold was safe at the Sheriff's office? Sure it's not a bank, and usually in Westerns, it's the banks getting attacked but… grr…_

_I'm definitely hopeless… I'm supposed to know how stories are happening! Clow won't even need to lecture me that time for I already feel quite useless and ashamed right now…_

Her eyes fell under the shadow of her eyes.

_Because now, the Beagle Boys have the Gold Core – and our gold in the same lot… so I'm sure Nami will…_

"We're going to hunt them and make them seriously regret having stolen our gold!" exclaimed Nami with a revengeful expression, her fists tightened with determination.

_BINGO… _sighed Fuu with a resigned attitude.

The rest of the Mugiwaras, the WhiteBeard's Pirates and the major part of the cow-boys present nearby had by now assembled in the High Street to comment the event, and it was a raging chaos where everyone was trying to get as much information as possible.

"They didn't leave a single nugget!" was commenting the cow-boy who had first dashed to the Saloon to alert everyone of the robbery, "But the Sheriff is already hunting them! For sure, when he'll have caught them, we'll know who is behind the break-in!"

TILT. Marco's eyes narrowed in a frown which kept on growing deeper as he was listening to the cow-boy's story.

"Oy… Anne…" called he in low voice.

"Yes, I know…" answered the rufous-haired woman in a similar discontented tone, before shooting a couple of suspicious looks around them, scanning their surroundings with a bad feeling.

But a loud feminine voice interrupted them.

"What are you talking about?" was shouting Nami, dumbfounded to hear the surrounding cow-boys apparently trusting their Sheriff to bring back the gold, and thus not planning on going after the thieves themselves, "No way!"

Under the guidance of her energetic motivation, in less than ten seconds, the rest of the crew was on Nami's side – for Nami, for honour, for revenge, for not having any other choice than following the others, etc… – and everyone was now determined to go and pick a fight with the Beagle Boys to teach them not to rob pirates in general and them in particular.

Fuu was gazing at the scene from afar, her mind lost on some different and fluctuating matter, when Anne approached her.

"Fuu," called the red-haired woman, "About what happened…"

"I… I don't want to talk about it…" mumbled Fuu while averting her eyes, a bitter taste spreading between her lips at remembering the scene in the Saloon's Room #3.

SHIN. Anne paused a second, taken aback by Fuu's answer, before finally getting at the pale yet slightly blushing carnation of her friend that she might be referring to the only topic making her flushed – i.e. Ace.

"Sure, but that's not the most important right now…" spoke Anne with a cautious look for the surrounding cow-boys, "Fuu, you were the first one outside, so tell me: how long did it take between the break-in and the alarm?"

TILT. Fuu's attention was now fully focused on the question, the seriousness of Anne's tone finding echo to the eerie feeling she had got when first dashing across the High Street at hearing the news of the robbery.

"Too little…" she finally muttered with a perplexed look but a definite certitude about it.

"Smells bad for us…" screeched Anne while shooting a cautious glance at a little group of three men chatting discreetly at a corner between two wooden houses bordering the High Street, right in front of the Saloon.

"What do you m…?" tried to ask Fuu, but a scream on her left prevented her from learning more about it.

She briskly turned her head to see that the captured Beagle Boy had regained consciousness only to lose it again at seeing the picture of Hell Nami had given him.

"Anyway, careful with who you'll be fighting against, and tell Ace to watch out too!" warned Anne before swiftly turning heels to go and meet up with Marco and the rest of the group.

"W… wait!" called Fuu, frustrated not to get more specifications on such an enigmatic warning, but the rufous-haired pirate had already disappeared in the crowd, and a duplicated hand had poked Fuu on the shoulder to make her attention switch towards the scene which was happening at some metres, near the tamed horse.

"We want our gold back! And you're going to lead us to your hide-out… NOW!" was thundering Nami, her eyes black with anger pinned on the captured Beagle Boy who had – unfortunately for him – regained consciousness again.

_Oh my… _though Fuu with a hint of pity for the poor thief now trapped between the dark glare of Zoro and the expression corrupted by rage of Nami.

And with a sigh of resignation for the treatment of the prisoner, Fuu calmly crossed her arms in front of her, patiently waiting for the session of intimidation/psychological torture to be finished so that they would learn the location of the thieves hide-out.

It had been some time now – ever since the bringing-back-together of the crew more precisely – that she had resigned herself to stop interfering in the 'pirate' manners of her friends when dealing with foes. And even if she still disapproved strongly of it and had been lectured quite hard on the topic by Zoro, Nami or her brother for protesting and even sometimes defending some of their enemies, she was now staying silent on the matter and endeavoured to comfort herself with the fact that One Piece was a world where everyone was getting away with a harmless dose of comical violence.

TILT. But she soon noticed an insistent stare in her direction.

Robin came to stand by her right, the archaeologist also patiently waiting for the end of the battle Nami VS prisoner – whose outcome was already forecasted but where the time issue was still hazardous, especially if the Beagle Boy kept on fainting every time he was meeting Nami's face.

"Your eyes… are a little red…" began Robin while tactfully not looking at her interlocutor.

TILT. Fuu's eyes widened a bit at the hint, inwardly blessing her luck that the discreet black-haired woman had been the only one to notice the sequel of her tears.

"Lack of sleep or… something else…?" pursued Robin with a concerned tone, for having rarely seen Fuu without her usual smile.

"Something else…" murmured Fuu with a small conniving glance and a forced smile for her friend, "But nothing important, don't worry!"

_Definitely not important… _Fuutried to convince herself while flatly ignoring the distress signals her heart was sending her about the same topic, _I feel so ashamed for having started crying… I usually only cry over fluffy romance stories, epic dramatic sagas and moving music… I might cry of rage and indignation sometimes, but I barely cry of pain, so why…? Why would I cry over such a stupid common thing as a pirate spending a night with tavern girls or sexy cow-girls…?_

_Sure, it's frustrating to see for real that Ace doesn't consider me better than the rest of the girls he's attracting in his bed, but I can't be conceited to the point of crying when seeing my pride being piqued, can I…? I already knew Ace was a playboy, and I already knew he wasn't serious about me, so why? Why did it feel like I received a full-power slap …?_

And while Fuu was debating with herself whether or not she needed to make some introspection on her pride, the captured Beagle Boy had reached the point of the questioning where he was now supplicating Zoro to help him get out of reach from the 'orange-haired demon' and Usopp was supporting the request because Nami was indeed starting to have some dangerous ideas to make the robber confess and the long-nosed pirate had the 'can't-stand-looking-at-torture' disease.

_And also… _was still trying to recollect Fuu, watching the aforementioned scene without really seeing it for being deep in thoughts, _There is another problem… Even if I can somehow attribute my tears to the fact that surprising three people in a bed is really embarrassing, and that I'm vexed a nakama of mine would think of me the same way he thinks about nameless one-night-stands… there is still the problem of what I felt when leaving the room…_

Fuu instinctively brought her hand to her lips, as if to contain some awful feelings behind it.

_Regrets… ruthlessness … treachery… The taste of betrayal, it was the bitter taste of betrayal at that time, but WHY? _inwardly despaired Fuu while trying to find a reason – another than the obvious one she was clearly determined not to consider a single second – to what she had felt a bit before this morning, _It's just… ridiculous! Ace didn't betray anyone, why am I taking it to heart? Or maybe… maybe I feel bad because he ran after me and wanted to justify himself…? Yes, it must be the reason why! After all, Robin said so too… Everyone thinks I'm some sort of princess with no experience with men – as they said – so maybe he felt bad that I had surprised him in this kind of situation… And he tried to comfort me a bit like trying to reassure a child who would have seen something they weren't supposed to see…_

All engrossed in her own self-justification, Fuu didn't notice immediately that her eyes had gone wandering around in the direction of a black-haired Commander of WhiteBeard's Fleet, a Commander who was also earnestly gazing at her, as if trying to decipher on her face what could be happening in her mind while she was so deep in thoughts.

TILT. Fuu's eyes finally focused on what was in front of her, and upon meeting two obsidian pupils, she briskly turned her head to avoid them.

_STUPIIIIIIID!_ immediately cursed she, blaming herself for having behaved rashly again, _Why am I averting my eyes? Everything is my fault… Maybe Robin is right in the end: seeing such behaviours from people close to me makes me ill-at-ease…_

_But I shouldn't blame them for it, come on! I'm the one acting weird, after all… I ran away, I probably made him feel bad that I had disturbed him in this situation, and I even used my shield against him, sigh… No wait! He's the playboy here, why would I be feeling bad for having interrupted? And also, he… he tried to… tried to kiss me…_

Fuu felt blood rush to her cheeks at remembering the last part of their argument, and she stared ardently at the dusty ground as if hoping to make the blush disappear that way.

_Calm down, let's calm down…! Let's think about it rationally… _ordered she as if talking to herself, _I might have done something wrong for entering his room without waiting for his answer first, and also for acting shocked upon discovering his… 'situation'… but I apologized immediately after, and I remember telling him I didn't hate him, so… so this matter is clean!_

As if hoping to find resolve or something comforting her reasoning, Fuu raised her eyes towards Ace, only to meet the discomfited expression of someone shared between regrets and irritation.

DOKI. Fuu's heart tingled in her chest at the sight and she averted her eyes again, half blushing and half regretting.

_What's this face for? Grr… he's the one wrong for the second part… being a playboy and trying to kiss me as if the two girls in his bed had not been enough for him! No but who does he take me for?_

Fuu slowly crooked a glance in Ace's direction who was still gazing at her with the same shared expression.

_Humph… Okay, then let's say fifty-fifty since we both did wrong… It's fine, it's nothing important, definitely not important… _tried to convince herself Fuu, _So let's act normally… naturally… Yes, I must act like as usual…_

Gathering resolve little by little, Fuu deeply breathed in and resolutely raised her eyes towards Ace after having forced her usual smile on her lips.

TILT. Ace first looked surprised by the smile, then confused, frowning slightly but in a puzzled fashion, before finally answering a sad smile to his interlocutor.

_Ace…? _thought Fuu while her own smile was faltering in front of such an unexpected reaction.

But she didn't have the leisure to dwell on the situation any longer, as a call informed her that Nami had finally made the Beagle Boy confess.

"Let's go!" exclaimed the mikan-haired navigator while tossing aside the prisoner who was half-dead under the pressure and fear he had experienced for the past minutes.

With a wide gesture of the arm, everyone gathered and the little troop dashed through the High Street.

A couple of minutes later, they were barging in the ranch and an overly-motivated Nami had already jumped over the fence to go and tell – rather yell – at the cow-boy managing the estate that they needed to rent mounts and as soon as possible.

When Fuu finally reached the corral – far behind everyone else, just like every time they needed to run and she was cursing her state of non-manga-character for being so slow comparing to everyone else – it was only to realize that due to the chaos caused the thieves, a lot of horses had escaped the ranch – the sons of the cow-boy hot on their heels to bring them back home – and that there wasn't enough horses for everyone.

_The… the horse of the Beagle Boy… _thought Fuu at seeing Luffy mount the tamed animal with Nami and already giving him a nickname as the good pet he was, _And everyone else is…_

Indeed, everyone else was also ready and sharing the remaining mounts, Chopper riding with Usopp, Zoro with Robin, Brook with Franky, and that one of the two remaining horse-riders had bent towards her to offer her a place on his own horse.

_Ace…? _paused Fuu at seeing the black-haired Commander holding out his hand towards her with a small hesitating smile, the kind of expression one would rather use to try and coax a wild animal rather than to ask one's nakama to ride together to go and hunt a bunch of thieves.

_I… I should… _hesitate Fuu while biting her inferior lip.

Everyone was now watching the scene with perplexed eyes, quite baffled to see Fuu reticent to mount, especially when remembering how happy she had been to horse-ride the days before, and rather expecting her to battle with Ace to get to hold the reins with the excited expression of an overjoyed child.

"Fuu…?" called Nami with an impatient tone which had already been quite tempered down by seeing her nakama acting so weird.

TILT.

Fuu forced herself to focus back on the present matter at stake and shut down the little contradicting voices and feelings which were invading her head to the point of not even forming a clear idea of what she was feeling at the moment.

_Behave normally… behave normally…_

And while her mind was making a short-cut between 'acting normally' and 'acting without thinking', she put her hand in Ace's, and he effortlessly pulled her up on the horse just in front of him.

But Ace's relieved smile at seeing her accept his hand didn't last long for it was only to see that his co-horse-rider was still avoiding his eyes and absent-mindedly patting the horse's neck without a single glance for him.

"Let's go!" finally rose the powerful and determined voice of Nami, cutting short to everyone's puzzled faces at seeing Fuu with such an empty expression and Ace apparently not feeling better.

The crossing of the desert was done in silence – relative silence comparing to the usual hubbub always accompanying the Mugiwaras – but at gallop towards the disaffected section of the mine which was used as a hiding place by the thieves.

* * *

**EL DORADO, ABANDONNED SECTION OF THE MINES, A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER**

"Luffy!" called Fuu when swiftly jumping on her feet as soon as they reached their destination, thus opening her mouth for the first time since long hours, "I need to talk to you."

Everyone had already started racing towards the entrance of the mines to chase down the Beagle Boys, under the energetic lead of Nami.

"Hey?" answered Luffy with a puzzled expression, jogging as if treading water to let his nakama catch him back.

_Yes… I've had plenty leisure time to think about it during the ride, so… If we need to fight again, I should make it clear! _decided Fuu when catching back running with the rest of the troop.

"About my power…" began Fuu while resolutely pinning her eyes in the ones of her temporary captain, "I'm planning on using it to fight!"

"WHAT?" exclaimed Luffy while definitely stopping the race in the middle of the mine gallery, his face a mixture of exasperation and anger, "Why? It's dangerous for you and I told you not to use it!"

_Now he knows how I felt all these years when seeing him doing all these crazy reckless things… _sighed Ace while digging his hat on his head at wondering if he was doomed to bear with all the rash idiots passing by – his little brother and his hazelnut-haired angel included.

He gazed at the two of them and swallowed back a bitter taste spreading in his mouth, holding back his desire to go and take part in the debate.

"Hum… I know, and thanks for caring about it…" sadly smiled Fuu, feeling touched by the demonstration of concern, "But I definitely can't allow something like what happened at Fimbul to happen again if I can do something against it…"

"I don't care if you can do something! We can still do without you!" ranted Luffy with stubborn determination.

"I… I know too…" answered Fuu while perfectly knowing the Mugiwaras had never needed her in the first place, since she wasn't part of the original scenario, but she quieted down this information and the tingling annoying feeling of uselessness associated to it to keep her resolution, "So let's say I'm not doing it for you, but for me!"

TILT.

"Wh… what?" mumbled the rest of the Mugiwaras, taken aback by her declaration as she was usually pestering them with wanting to be useful to them and to do things for them – and never for herself.

Even Luffy frowned.

"I'm selfish too, you know…" pursued Fuu while clenching her fists with frustration, "So I can also selfishly decide to do whatever I want, no matter the consequences. I can decide of what I wish to see happen… and of what I don't wish to see happen…"

Luffy tilted his head on the side, waiting for more practical declarations.

"And my most selfish wish… it's to see everyone safe… even if I am not…" confessed Fuu with an ashamed tone while lowering her eyes under the shadow of her hair.

TILT.

A smile gradually grew on the lips of the pirates present, the majority of them thinking they had decidedly assembled a crew of hotspurs each one more stubborn than another, but all deeply caring for their nakamas.

Everyone was now looking at their captain for hearing his verdict on the topic.

"No way!" flatly answered Luffy with his usual straight-forward face.

CRASH. The rest of the crew had collapsed on the ground, struck with such a flagrant lack of sensibility.

SNAP. Fuu felt anger and embarrassment rise to her head, on top of all the remorse and secrets she was already carrying in her heart on the topic of her 'usefulness' in this world.

She dug her nails in the palms of her hands to force herself to keep her cool.

"Then I'll just do without your approval…" screeched she in so low a tone that no one else heard it.

Luffy frowned more deeply.

"If you can't understand my reasons, then I'll ask you a question instead…" declared Fuu in a whisper so low that only Luffy could hear her, "Do you regret the price you paid Iva-chan for being healed at Impel Down and be able to reach Marine Ford?"

TILT. Luffy froze.

During a mere second, he wondered how Fuu could know about such a thing, but his surprise nearly instantly disappeared under his usual straight-forward determination.

"No! Never!" hammered he with this serious and impressive tone he was using only when faced with an important matter.

"Then… let me do the same…" murmured Fuu while pinning her eyes in his, "Let me live with that power by using it so that I won't have any more regrets…"

Luffy stared at her without flinching, and Fuu stared back at him with sad yet unwavering determination.

SHIN. Long seconds of silence flew by in the rocky gallery.

"Only for emergency…" finally declared Luffy.

"Only when there isn't much alternative…" nodded Fuu.

"I trust you!" warned Luffy.

"I'll prove myself worthy of it!" smiled Fuu.

PAN. PAN. PAN. But the matter should close itself on this smile between the two interlocutors, as the pistol shots of the Beagle Boys echoed through the gallery, indicating that the thieves had noticed the intruders and were coming after them to shower them with lead.

'Gomu Gomu no… Fuusen" called Luffy while inflating his stomach like a balloon of latex to use it as a rebounding shield, making the bullets flying back towards their expeditors.

TCHAK. Zoro was leisurely sheathing back his katana – that no one had had time to see him unsheathe – while sliced-apart bullets were slowly falling to the ground in a sound of metal hitting rock.

BAM. Ace was nonchalantly letting go of a small rock he had just used to laterally hit the bullets in mid-air and deviate them from their original course, the smashed bullets crashing into the gallery walls.

_Wow… indeed, they really don't need my help… _faintly smiled Fuu while calmly closing her right hand to suppress the magical energy she had prepared to cast her shield 'spell' which they obviously didn't need anymore, _It's not even three but four Bakemonos that we now have in the crew… It would be greedy to ask for better than Luffy, Zoro, Ace and Sanji as a fighting team!_

She shot a proud and confident smile towards their four stronger combatants, before suddenly tilting at seeing one missing to the count.

"Nami," called Fuu while looking all around them with a baffled expression, "Where is Sanji…?"

In the resounding noisy chaos of the elastic punches of the 'Gomu Gomu no Storm' which was massacring the remaining Beagle Boys which hadn't – smart decision – run away at seeing before the intruders easily counter their attack, Nami tilted too and soon the whole team was looking for their absent nakama.

"Cook-san left on horse-back with us…" spoke Robin, "But I do not remember seeing him step down from his mount."

"Sanji-san arrived at the mines with the whole of us. He was riding just in front of us" specified Brook.

"Yeah, so that means we lost him at the entrance…" added Franky while scratching his chin.

"Tsk, this damned Ero-cook sucks at finding his bearings…" groaned Zoro while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

SHIN. A heavy silence fell on the group as everyone was shooting a blasé look at their swordsman while thinking: _And that's him of all people saying that?_

"No way…" finally declared Nami with a shrug, "Sanji is not the type to get lost, on the contrary to you…"

"Oy…" tilted Zoro at seeing his pride scratched.

"Indeed, Sanji-san is not directionally challenged. Not like you, Zoro-san, who are always heading in the wrong direction." edded Brook while slowly shaking his head in a resigned fashion.

"Oy!" ranted Zoro, a vein having now appeared on his temple out of vexation.

"Hey Zoro, I hope it's not contagious, your thing about always getting lost." asked Luffy with a disapproving expression, "I don't want us to be all in trouble because of it!"

"OY!" snapped Zoro while baring his teeth, "Cut the crap, now! You're not going to gang against me just because this damned Dartboard-Eyebrow once more decided to go it alone?"

SHIN. A new silence of realization fell on the little troop, everyone glancing at each other and starting new conjectures.

"It is true that Cook-san also came alone in the Peeping-Tom…" reminded Robin at the reminiscences of the events of Water Seven and Enies Lobbies.

"And he's also the type to notice suspicious things and to start follow a lead on his own…" added Nami, her hand resting on her chin in a study pose.

"So could he have entered the mine through another gallery to follow a trail, then…?" suggested Fuu with a similar thinking pose.

"Ah, if it's Sanji you're looking for," started Usopp who was just coming back after having hidden himself behind a huge rock with Chopper when the shoot-out had begun, "He said there was something bugging him and that he was going ahead."

SHIN. An angel passed…

Two angels…

A herd…

BONG. BONG. BONG.

"And you couldn't say it BEFORE?" yelled Nami while baring her teeth, shaking between her hands an Usopp with some triple piled-up bumps on his head.

_Sigh… _yearned the rest of the group with a deep exhalation of weariness.

_Sanji… _sighed Fuu at contemplating the scene, _Couldn't you have found a less air-headed messenger than Usopp of all people…?_

* * *

**ABANDONNED MINE, UPPER GALLERY**

"Achaaa!" noisily sneered Sanji before rubbing his nose, "Someone must be talking about me…"

At this thought, a wide disturbing grin spread on his lips, as some fleeting hearts where flashing on and off in his eyes.

"Aah, Nami-swan, Robin-chwan, Fuu-chwan…" was fantasizing Sanji at imagining his three goddesses worrying for him as he was departing as a hero ready to defeat the Evil, "I know you must be missing me, but we will have to delay our reunion…"

Recovering his serious composure, Sanji stared at the distant strong-built silhouette he had been tailing ever since the entrance of the gallery.

"If he's taking a different way than the mobs downhill, he must have a reason…" mumbled he with a suspicious look for the tall blond man in a leather vest who seemed to perfectly know where he was heading in the maze of the disaffected mine galleries.

And the discreet stalking continued among the labyrinth of rock corridors.


	38. Story V, Quest, Trail 2

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

The Good, The Bad & the Ugly ~Part.2~

…

**EL DORADO, ABANDONNED MINE, MAIN GALLERY**

TILT. Fuu's eyes were suddenly attracted by a familiar silhouette.

_C… could it be…? _thought Fuu, out-of-breath, when briskly turning around in mid-course.

But no one was visible at the crossing of stone corridors, making her wonder if the short anthropomorphic silhouette she believed she had seen had been a mere fleeting impression.

"Fuu!" called a voice behind her.

"Huh…?" barely had time to react the hazelnut-haired girl, before feeling her feet leave ground, and her body lifted up by two strong furry arms.

BAM. Before she had time to realize what was going on, Chopper in his humanoid form had put her down in a metal cart and jumped next to her.

_Eeeeeeeh…? _wondered Fuu when feeling the cold contact of the cart wall under her hands as she gripped tightly to it to avoid falling on the floor when the wagon suddenly gained in speed.

BAM. A thumbing shock behind her made her turn her head to see that two more carts had joined the first one.

"Wh… what the…?" exclaimed she at seeing Franky swiftly jump in a second wagon after having pushed the rolling vehicles on the rusty railway running along the mine corridors.

"Senchou-san suggested it would be a quicker way to catch back onto the thief." coolly informed a feminine voice nearby.

Calmly standing in the same cart as her with Chopper who had taken back his plushie form to enjoy the ride, Robin crooked an amused smile to her friend.

Behind them, their captain was sharing the second wagon with Usopp, Nami and Franky.

_I'm sure it's rather that Luffy wanted to enjoy a ride! Sigh…_ thought Fuu with a moody pout punctuated with a sweat-drop on the back of her head.

"Franky, we need to go faster!" commanded the strong voice of Nami, "I can't see the cart of these damned robbers and we mustn't lose track of them!"

"Yosh! Everyone tighten your seatbelt and get ready for some suuper acceleration!" answered the blue-haired cyborg while pressing on a button of a strange-looking rocket he had fixed on the last cart nobody-knew-when.

DOMM. A strong impulsion of the same category of the Thousand Sunny 'Coup de Vent' sent the little train of three carts forward at light speed, making a couple of passengers fall to the floor of the wagons in the process.

"Humph…" sulked Franky at seeing the little propulsion gadget disintegrating after use, "Except Komusume's gun that's protected by the Dragon's gem, not a lot of cannons can support the 'Coup de Vent', tsk…"

_Ouch… _thought Fuu while cautiously getting back on her feet once the sudden acceleration was finished.

A quick glance out of the cart was enough to make her scream.

"KYAAA!" shouted she in unison with Chopper as they saw first-handed the abrupt downhill fall awaiting them.

DASH. The little train rushed down the railway, gaining in speed to attack a rising slant before hurtling down another slope.

_WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY? _inwardly screamed Fuu while holding onto Chopper in a panicked state, _Why is it that there can't be a story with disaffected mines without rides in nightmarishly scary mine carts? I HATE ROLLER-COASTERS!_

"Shishishi, so cool!" was laughing the energetic voice of their captain just behind her, his ecstatic face enlightened with a large grin.

"So, Luffy, which way did the thieves go?" asked Nami in loud voice to cover the rambling of the carts, once the succession of slopes had made them resume a reasonably paced journey.

"Hum?" answered Luffy while tilting his head on the side, "I don't know."

TILT. Nami froze.

"They didn't take this kind of train, but they should be somewhere…" kept on Luffy while putting his hand at the level of his eyes to search their surrounding for the robbers.

TILT. A vein appeared on Nami's forehead.

"Well, that's not important. We'll catch them back eventually, right?" grinned Luffy while placing his hands behind his head in a very relaxed fashion.

SNAP. The vein on Nami's temple exploded.

BONG. BONG. BONG.

The sound made everyone snap out of their contemplation – blasé, frightened or admiring – of their route to focus on the scene happening in the second cart.

Letting Chopper out of her arms, Fuu shot a glance backwards, and repressed a resigned laugh at seeing Luffy knocked out with some triple piled-up bumps on his head, while Nami was shaking him out of anger, the whole peppered with unspeakable curses.

_Oh my… Bingo… Luffy really ONLY wanted the ride…!_

Repressing an amused smile for the scene, her eyes went past the four passengers of the second cart and involuntarily wandered on the back of a passenger of the third wagon.

The speed had made the orange cow-boy hat fly down on his back, and it was now rebounding on the camel-coloured shirt at each jolt of the train on the rusty railway. Hands dug in the pockets of his back short pants, the draught ruffling his hair on both sides of his face, his expression was impossible to decipher.

_Ace…_

"CAREFUL!" shot Franky's powerful voice as he hammered his hand on Fuu's head to pin it lower.

BAM. Her head hit the sill of the cart, just in time for her to avoid a low stone stalactite which had made the ceiling come way too close to the heads of the carts passengers.

_Ouch…_ thought Fuu while massaging her nose which had bumped into the cold metal due to Franky's effective yet rough reaction.

Everyone else had had no trouble avoiding the obstacle, and without apparent efforts, including Ace who hadn't even bothered on turning back to face it and had simply lowered his head at the last second.

_Tsk… _ thought Fuu while quieting down in her heart the useless feeling of worry which had sprouted at thinking he might have bumped his head in the ceiling.

She gradually turned her head back towards their destination as her eyes caught sight of a bright light at the other end of the stone corridor they were travelling through.

DASH. The little train emerged at full speed from the passageway and everyone's eyes widened at the change of scenery.

The narrow dark – originally dark until Franky had lit up some projector on his body – corridor which they had gone through was converging, just like many others, on the long railway bordering an immense shaft.

Open to the sky but so deep that light was losing itself in its abyss, the main well of this old section of the mine was large of a hundred metres, and had been built in snail shape to collect all carts from the different galleries of the mine before bringing them back to the sorting area.

"So… so deep…" gulped down Chopper while looking with frightened eyes at the dark heart of the shaft a mere couple of metres on their side.

"Th… there couldn't be a monster living down there, right…?" swallowed back Usopp with cold sweats, "I've heard stories about demons made of flames and everlasting rocks and living in the depths of the Earth since Ancient Times…"

"WHAT? No way!" shouted Chopper, quite panicked by the thought.

_A monster from Ancient Times at the bottom of the mine, huh… _thought Fuu with a composed expression, _Maybe I should call Clow to check if there isn't some Balrog living in here, on top of all the guests from Walt Disney universe we have already met, sigh…_

"Wh… what should we do if there's really a monster?" started panicking Chopper.

"Ooh, if it's a cool monster, I want to see it!" grinned Luffy with star-shaped eyes of anticipation.

"Now is not the time for it, we need the gold, our gold!" reminded Nami with an angry tone, "We need to catch the thieves!"

"Tsk, no fun…" pouted Luffy with a sulky expression.

"It's all your fault if we lost sight of them to ride on these carts, you idiot!" shouted Nami while hardly repressing an urge to knock her boyfriend off again.

"But maybe we can meet a cool monster if we stay on them…" remarked Luffy with an expression so serious it could only provoke Nami further.

"I wouldn't mind pursuing the topic, but…" calmly cut Robin while pointing in the forward direction, "If we're not doing something soon, we're all going to meet with the deep bottom of the mine instead!"

TILT.

Following Robin's direction, everyone briskly turned around to gaze at the place where the inertial force of the carts was leading them, beyond the descending spiral of rails bordering the central shaft of the mine. In case they wouldn't be able to leave the principal lane to enter one of the side galleries, they will end up reaching the lower part of the shaft where the railway used to cross the emptiness on a wooden aqueduct now… uprooted.

_We're really falling into some cliché scenario, sigh… _inwardly sighed Fuu with a huge drop of resigned weariness appearing at the back of her head,_ Why is it that in every story where the characters board a cart, there is a destroyed bridge threatening to make them fall into dark abysses…?_

Everyone had soon reached the same conclusion and the usual panicking trio was blue with terror – except Brook who was always skull-white. Nami had turned white too, Luffy was a mixture of unconcern and curiosity, and Franky had let out a low curse while starting to scribble on a small notebook to calculate if they had enough speed to 'jump' over the gap and hope to land safely on the other end of the wooden aqueduct.

The last equation seemed to discomfit him a lot.

Fuu shot a glance at the destroyed bridge awaiting them and then finally at the surrounding railways.

"Luffy," called she while turning herself towards the second cart in which was standing her temporary captain, "We could try and switch the wagons towards a new line… Can you try and grab one of these red-handed levers?"

"Those red wooden sticks?" repeated Luffy while putting his hand at the level of his eyes in a perplexed fashion, definitely not overly stressed by the actual matter.

"Yeah, these hand-gears there!" explained Franky by pointing with his thumb at one of the levers they had passed by at full-speed, "When pulled completely, they'll engage the mechanism to make the rails switch towards another lane."

Everyone looked with apprehension at the big and heavy looking wooden bars with red handles stationed a bit upstream each crossing of railways. They had already passed by a good dozen of them without even realizing it at the speed they were going, and things were getting worse as they kept on accelerating in this never-ending descending spiral lane – or rather the ending wasn't going to be pretty if they couldn't switch lane before.

"Luffy, don't wait for it to be close, you have to try now!" instructed Nami with an anxious voice when looking at the few remaining galleries – and their red levers – left for them to avoid falling into emptiness at reaching the torn off aqueduct part.

"Yosh! Grab it and pull it, that's it…?" asked Luffy with enthusiasm while staring straight at the next lever in the twirling scenery of dancing darkness, "Gomu Gomu no… Amidori!"

But Luffy's elastic arms missed their target, once… twice… at the third time, they rebounded on a passing stalagmite… at the fifth they didn't rewind quickly enough and got wrapped around another stone pillar, pulling him in reaction out of the cart, but he swiftly recovered and rebounded on the stalagmite to jump back on the already distant wagon.

"Phew…"sighed he while landing safely in the cart and readjusting his straw hat on his head, "That was close!"

BAM. But he didn't have time to say any more than that as two angry hands grabbed his vest.

"What the hell are you thinking?" shouted Nami while baring her teeth, "You nearly knocked off some of us with your rebounded fists, and now THAT? What use is there for you to try if you're ending up falling in the shaft yourself?"

And while everyone else was sighing in resignation at seeing the mixture of anger and concern with which Nami was lecturing her boyfriend, Fuu turned her eyes towards Robin.

"Couldn't you try with one of your duplicated arms?" asked she to her nakama.

"I already thought about it but I need a constant visual to use my Devil Fruit power…" answered the black-haired archaeologist with a calm shrug.

To bring more emphasis to her declaration, she crossed her arms in front of her and activated her power.

"Un Fleur!" called she, a duplicated arms appearing in answer on the other side of the shaft, grabbing the red-handed lever.

POF. Robin's hand disappeared nearly immediately in a couple of flower petals.

POF. POF. POF. Similar tentative all ended up with similar endings as the thick stalagmites and long enfilades of rocks on their right just between the railway and the precipice were chopping her field of vision way too often to leave her time to engage the lever.

"Seems like we are doomed to hit rock bottom and die splattered on cold ground after an endless frightening fall…" sighed Robin with an expressionless face and monochord voice.

"Oy, oy, OY!" ranted the rest of the group with disapproving hands risen in the air to cut with Robin's eerie and fatalist remark.

_Oh my… _sighed Fuu with a huge drop of sweat beading on her temple in front of the scene.

"Franky, can't we engage the mechanism another way?" asked Nami who had been the first one to recover her composure in this emergency situation.

"No. If the lever is not pulled entirely, then the junction of rails will just become separated enough to make us bump on it. And with our current speed, that would propel us straight into the hole… Tsk, talk about a suuper jinx…" grumbled the cyborg.

"What can we do? What can we do?" had resumed panicking Brook, Usopp and Chopper, the sniper half fainting in terror, the little reindeer walking right and left in the front cart, and the gentleman skeleton seizing his bony cheeks in his hands in the last wagon.

"Nagahana-kun could maybe aim quickly enough to reach the mechanism without being hindered by the surrounding obstacles…" offered Robin without losing her usual composure.

TILT.

"Hey…?" paused Usopp, taken aback by the suggestion.

"Of course, let's calm down and let Usopp-san take care of the matter. Anyone would want a cup of tea?" asked Brook in a complete reversal of countenance while calmly sipping some Earl Grey tea from a Victorian tea-cup no one could guess the provenance.

"YOU'RE TOO CALM!" roared Zoro, Nami and even Usopp while baring their teeth at seeing such behaviour.

"Anyway, Usopp, let's try what Robin just suggested!" said Nami while turning herself towards the sniper, "You should be able to do it, right? Aiming at the far-away lever despite the speed?"

"O… of course!" confirmed Usopp with a really confident air while rubbing his nose with pride, "Did I tell you the story about how I trained how to shoot in every position possible and even sometimes at the perpendicular comparing to the ground, on the island where I've been sent during these epic and heroic months of training? I need to specify that it was mainly because the ground of the island wasn't often at horizontal position and…"

"Yes, yes, sure…" sighed Nami while dusting away the episode with her hand, "Now is time to prove yourself!"

While Usopp was pulling out his Kabuto and ammunitions out of – _out of nowhere _from Fuu's point of view who still couldn't understand how her nakamas managed to pull their weapons out of thin air – Nami turned towards the first cart to call her hazelnut-haired friend.

"Fuu, let's switch!" said Nami while swiftly stepping across the space separating the two connected wagons.

"Wh… what…?" muttered Fuu, taken aback by the instruction but still obeying it and changing wagons, although less swiftly than her friend.

"Usopp will need your help on that one." informed Nami while pointing at their sniper, who had pulled his different ammunitions and seemed quite perplexed on which combo to use to operate the mechanism without destroying it in the process.

"Huh…?" blinked Fuu in disbelief.

Baffled at supposing someone so much better than her at aiming and sniping could need her help for something, she drew a bit closer to Usopp.

He was pulling different 'stars' from the ammunition pockets of his outfit, and seemed quite annoyed at something.

"Torimochi Boshi to get a grasp on the lever is great…" mumbled he with a bothered tone, "But I only have Hi no Tori Boshi for fire power…"

"Is it bad…?" asked Fuu with a puzzled look, "Will it be too strong and break the lever?"

"You're speaking to the great Captain Usopp!" reminded he with a self-sufficient pose, "Shooting at the right spot with the right intensity is nothing!"

"I see…" paused Fuu with a drop of sweat appearing on her temple.

_So what is the matter then…?_

"But this 'great' idiot knows the Fire Bird Star will burn the glue of his Sticky Star…" sighed Nami with a disapproving glance for their gunner.

"Oh!" realized Fuu at better understanding the problem, "Can it be that you want me to use one of the icy winds of my gun to counter it?"

"Yep!" nodded Nami while looking at the next corridor of rock they wanted to switch towards, "And it would be great if you can prepare that quickly!"

"We've reached the next-to-last crossing during our discussion." informed Robin with knowing glance for their last opportunity, just opposite of them across the huge shaft.

"S… sure!" panicked Fuu while pulling precipitately her gun from her holster and positioning herself next to Usopp.

The sniper instructed her to prepare a 'Level 4' wind and prepare her shot just behind him, in the trajectory of his Kabuto. Quite anxious to do well, Fuu stepped back at her maximum on the other flank of the cart and carefully aimed for the centre of the Kabuto, so that her bubble of icy wind will engulf Usopp's 'Hi no Tori Boshi' to deaden the flames, until the sticky 'Torimochi Boshi' could reach the lever and operate it, under the strength of the fire-less 'Fire Bird Star'.

"Now!" called the black-haired gunner, "Hi² no Tori-mochi Boshi!"

DOMM. BOM. CREEK… Double BAM.

DOMM. BOM. The shoots left their respective weapon in great synchronisation, the icy 'Hi' swallowing the fire-y 'Hi' and letting a white fluffy sticky bird emerge from their combined attack. The phoenix made of shiroi mochi crossed the dark emptiness of the mine shaft and went and nest around the red-handed lever in a powerful twirl of powdery snow.

CREEK. The mechanism activated, making the rails crossing switch towards the lateral line. But no one inside the carts had had leisure to witness their success, as the combined attack had had some terrible consequences on their balance.

Double BAM. Fuu's silver gun detonation had – as usual since Franky had been unable to cope with this defective aspect of its use ever since the creation of the weapon – violently propelled her backwards. She had hit the side of their cart, making it lift with inertia on its two lateral wheels and causing everyone to lose their balance. Luffy had launched both elastic hands towards the first wagon to try and stabilize them and make them fall into the rails once more. Franky had threw himself on the opposite site to try and make counter-weight. Usopp had fallen butt over head over the edge of the cart, only avoiding a fall into the abyss thanks to Zoro who had grabbed him at the last minute by the belt to pull him up into their own wagon at the back. But Fuu had unfortunately not had Usopp's luck as she had rolled out of the cart when it had lifted, making her meet with the emptiness of the surrounding darkness.

"Kyaa!" screamed she before her voice got deaden by the fall.

A passenger from the last cart felt his eyes widen in horror at seeing the white silhouette disappearing out of sight in the precipice.

"FUU!" shouted Ace, out of his senses, at seeing the object of his thoughts ever since they had entered the mines – attention restrained by a degree of self-consciousness which had made him stayed silent in the background for all this time – disappear into the abyss.

In total panic, he placed his foot on the sill of the cart, quite determined to do something.

BAM. But two strong arms adorned with blue star tattoos instantly collared him and dragged him backwards on the floor of the second cart.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" shouted Franky while still restraining Ace, "You want to play it like a suuper-hero or something? Don't be stupid!"

"SHUT UP!" roared Ace, out of his senses and his eyes delirious, "Let go of me! I can't let Fuu…"

"What are you planning? Jumping into darkness?" countered Franky without releasing him, "You can't do a thing, so just let komusume…"

"Grr…" clenched his teeth Ace as he was gazing at the abyss with eyes mad with concern, as images of vain trials to help her were succeeding in his head.

"Ace." suddenly cut Luffy's voice, cool and emotionless, "Fuu doesn't need you, you know…"

DOKI. Ace felt as if something had pierced his chest from part to part, lacerating in the process everything between both points.

Blood flushed away from his face with distress at the underlying meaning of the statement, before coming back rushing with fury at the blatant indifference of his little brother.

"Wh… Y… But she's…!" retorted he while shaking himself out of the restrain of Franky's arms.

"We already discussed it, so…" pursued Luffy with his plain expressionless face, "It's okay for her to use her power to fly."

SHIN.

The draught of wind projected at full speed when the cart passed the crossing of railways hit Ace's baffled face with force, making his expression even more dazed.

As if to confirm the eerie statement of his little brother which his mind hadn't processed yet, Ace's eyes slowly caught glance of a floating white feather on his right. The top of two white wings followed, rising from behind the flank of the cart. Soon, under the utter amazement of WhiteBeard's Second Commander, a hazelnut-haired head followed, a troubled face, a slender body dressed in a beige dress, white boots…

And while the train was now continuing its journey in the lateral gallery, Fuu's feet safely landed on the floor of the second cart, as she was calmly dispersing her wings in a crackle of stardust.

"Phew!" sighed Fuu with a forced laughter, "I was afraid I won't be able to catch onto the wagons before you enter the corridor…"

SHIN. Ace had frozen.

In normal circumstances, he would have hit himself for having been so oblivious and would probably have felt ashamed of forgetting she could fly – and had even caught him back with her wings when he had been the one to fall from a griffin – but at this very moment, his mind hadn't processed yet the information sent by his eyes.

Even Franky lowered his eyes while definitely letting go of him, wondering if their captain's brother had made a heart-attack or something similar.

"F… Fuu…" finally managed to mumble Ace, as if slowly rousing from his torpor.

"Huh…?" reacted Fuu while turning her head towards him, not having heard his call due to the rambling of the carts.

_Wh…?_

BADABAM. Fuu suddenly felt herself lose her balance, her feet getting brushed from the trembling support of the metal cart, and she collapsed on the floor of the wagon.

"What the heck?" roared Franky while throwing himself on the other side to counter-balance the sudden change of weight repartition inside the cart, while Luffy was throwing his elastic arms at the first cart again to try and stabilize the whole, "Hey, Hiken! What the…"

But the complaint stopped at witnessing the scene.

SHIN. Silence fell for a second, barely troubled by the regular rambling of the cart wheels on the rails.

Fuu slowly re-opened her eyes after the shock, and the only thing she could only see was Ace's neck at a few centimetres from her face, logical result of him having jumped on her to hold her – the non-forecasted result having been that his impulse had destabilized their vehicle in the process.

Fuu had now frozen, completely stupefied at feeling Ace's arms closing back around her shoulders and lower back to crush her against his chest.

"Don't ever do that again, baka!" whispered Ace is a barely audible voice, his breathe agitating a couple of hair-curls near Fuu's ear.

DOKI.

_Wh… Why? How can he be saying such a thing in such a tone…? Why is he telling me that as if he was going to die in the opposite case? Why is he holding me so tightly as if he had been afraid of losing me? What… what the… WHY? No but… Grr, how can he act like that… like if he was caring about me… while he spends his nights with other girls?_

The scene had lasted a mere couple of seconds – even though the two protagonists had felt it as if it was an eternity – but the rest of the group was now slowly getting back to their senses.

Franky did not resume his scolding but instead massaged his chin with an amused smile. Robin had simply shot a glance at them with her usual mysterious smile. Zoro had opened one eye without uncrossing his arms and was back to his prior attitude, though peppered with a sulking grouch. Nami had grinned with a conniving expression. Usopp was still knocked out – the result of Zoro not having caught him back delicately and having left his head bump into a stalagmite before lifting him in the third cart previously. Brook seemed expressionless, as usual, but his mouth was gaping. Chopper was happy that Fuu was safe and was considering asking Ace to let her breathe. And Luffy was grinning at his brother with a victorious laugh – quite glad to have proved his point on Fuu managing her best without help.

_She doesn't need me, it's okay, my loss! _was inwardly pondering Ace, _It's okay, I don't care! No, I DO care but still… I said I'll wait, so it'll be okay… She might not need me but it's just obvious I do need her! I need her so much! So it's okay, it's okay as long as she doesn't scare me like that again!_

"See, I told you!" laughed Luffy with a mocking grin for his older brother, "You don't need to worry about Fuu since she's got wings with her power!"

"Yeah, talk about a suuper worry…" mocked Franky in turn, "And here I'd thought you'd fallen out with her… looks like I got it all wrong, heehee…"

TILT. Franky's remark made some unpleasant memories come back to Fuu and Ace's minds, and a bitter taste started spreading in her mouth at recollecting why she was in cold terms with Ace ever since this morning.

Ace felt Fuu tense up between his arms and imperceptibly draw back from his embrace – for the tiny margin left between his tight hug – and he took it upon himself to not restrain her against her will.

His arms loosened gradually, slowly letting her go, and they both stood up without exchanging a single look.

Luffy watched with a puzzled face as his brother and his hazelnut-haired nakama separated in silence.

"Hey, they're really angry at each other…? But why?" asked he while tilting his head in his usual perplexed expression.

TILT. The question made Fuu and Ace spirits fall even lower, and Fuu walked away in silence approaching the junction between the carts for being quite determined to change wagons.

"Fuu…?" asked Luffy with a shared expression, "You can't be angry at Ace for yesterday night, right?"

BAM. Fuu's leg painfully bumped into the cart wall as she missed her step to cross over the two wagons.

_She's definitely bothered… _thought her nakamas in unison, a sweat-drop appearing at the back of their head at witnessing such a blatant lack of countenance.

On his side, Ace had just clenched his fists and turned away to avoid her eyes – not that he would have met them as Fuu was still back to them, ready to transfer to the first cart.

"Hum, so you're angry at him for that…? Come on, it's nothing big, Ace is always like that…" kept on Luffy with a lecturing pout on his face.

TILT. Fuu's teeth tightened in a mixture of regrets and anger at hearing the confirmation of what she had imagined respecting to their _annoying playboy_ nights.

She grabbed the sill of the cart tightly and placed her knee on it to gain support and definitely leave Ace – along Luffy and Franky – to join Nami, Robin and Chopper in the first wagon.

"I know it's annoying 'cause he drinks too much and just abandon everyone to go and sleep, tsk…" sulked Luffy with an exasperated pose, both hands behind his head and a childish pout on his lips in disapprobation against his big brother.

SHIN.

Fuu had stopped mid-way, wondering if it was her wishful-hearing due to the rambling noise of the train.

_Go and sleep…?_

A bit taken aback but desperately curious, she intently turned her head towards Luffy. Her temporary captain smiled at seeing the earnest look she was giving him.

"So it really was because of that, hum…?" laughed he the same way a grandparent would laugh at hearing why their grandchild is sulking, before recovering his usual idiotic enthusiastic grin, "Then next time come with us to wake him up, shishishi… It's always more fun when we're all together, but we didn't manage to pull him out of bed when we went upstairs last night…"

_W… wait a second…_

Fuu turned completely towards Luffy, as if to measure up the implications of the story he had just said.

_Sleeping… drunk and asleep… even when Luffy and the others went upstairs to his room, he was sleeping soundly…? _analysed she while mentally measuring the probability for a narcoleptic drunk guy to wake up to enjoy his time with tavern girls within the few hours left before his falling asleep and dawn.

A small bead of embarrassed sweat appeared on her temple as she started to bitterly regret her reaction the very same morning.

_In all objectivity… if Luffy didn't interrupt anything and didn't see the girls at that time, how could Ace have…?_

_Wait, no, wait a second, there's solid evidence! He was lying in bed with two girls in his arms: I've clearly seen it this morning and… seen… just 'seen'…? Is that all the evidence I have?_

Fuu swallowed back with difficulty.

_I… I decided of what to think based on a partial scene? A manga scene on top of that, while I know how too well mangakas love quiproquo and easy-to-misunderstand scenes? How could I be so prejudiced? I should know… I should know better, grr… But I… I…_

Her hands tightened on the edge of the cart, out of frustration against herself. A fleeting memory of Ace running after her to explain himself flashed in her mind, bringing the painful bitter feeling of blame to her lips.

_I should have listened to him…_

_Even if appearances were against him, I should have heard him out… Why is it that I refused to listen to him? Why is it that I left with my prejudices while I'm usually the one leaving too much the benefice of the doubt to people? Why… why for Ace? Although he's a playboy teasing me, he's still an important… nakama… of mine, so I… why couldn't I trust him and listen to him…?_

In confusion, Fuu slowly turned her head to gaze at the one standing on the other end of the second cart. Hands back in the pockets of his pants, his face from profile, the eyes under the shadow of his hair, Ace looked aggravated yet resigned, a mixture of loneliness and restrain, of frustration and regrets, but he was standing tall, poised, waiting.

DOKI. Fuu couldn't help biting her inferior lip with guilt at remembering the warm hold he had given her a couple of minutes before… worried arms tenderly yet earnestly hugging her up against a heart beating at full speed.

_Why… can't I… trust… him…?_

Her amber eyes met two obsidian pupils.

Blood rushed to her cheeks out of shame and something else.

"Sorry…" whispered Fuu in a faint guilty smile while swallowing back her pride and prejudices to earnestly apologize for having forgotten the trust she should have in WhiteBeard's Second Commander.

TILT. Ace's eyes widened in surprise, a sparkle of expectation animating the obsidian pupils in front of such an apologetic expression.

Without thinking twice about it, he stepped forward, taking his hand out of his pockets to hold it out towards the hazelnut-haired girl who had turned away in a discomfited expression to finally finish her transfer towards the first wagon.

"F…" began Ace with an earnest voice, before being abruptly interrupted.

BAM. A jolt made the train quake.

"Kyaa!" screamed Fuu – for the third time of the day – when toppling over the cart edge and falling head over heels towards the floor of the first wagon.

BAM. A second jolt shook the second wagon, and Luffy, Ace and Franky grabbed onto the metal edges to keep on board.

"Hey! Wh…?" exclaimed Franky when the jolting ended, at witnessing that they were now in pole position.

TILT. Briskly turning his head, he caught sight of the first cart as it was disappearing at full speed in another lateral gallery.

"Hey, why did we turn again?" asked the annoyed voice of Zoro with a glare for their blue-haired engineer.

"Hey, why did Nami and the girls left in another tunnel?" ranted Luffy while pointing energetically at the black hole which had swallowed the first wagon with their four nakamas.

"Franky-san…?" insisted Brook with a low bothered voice, while Ace's aura was sending threatening flames although he kept silent.

"But I don't know!" retorted Franky with an angry tone, quite vexed to be at the centre of the ranting, "We probably bumped into a twisted railway crossing, and it deviated the wheels, but…"

But Franky didn't have time to finish his explanation.

"GYAA!" shouted the guys – plus one skeleton – when hurtling down a succession of slopes and sharp bends at full speed, along the high wooden aqueduct strewn with rusty rails crossing a large and deep rocky cavern.

"Usopp!" called Zoro while catching back by the collar their still-unconscious sniper who was in great danger of being ejected from the cart at each turn, "Wake up, aho!"

"Hey, chill out!" lectured Franky while grabbing their gunner by the belt, "It won't help us if you're giving him suuper willies and he faints again!"

"Tsk…" screeched Zoro while letting go of their unconscious nakama, "Anyway, tell us how we're…"

But Zoro didn't have time to finish his sentence.

In front of him, the cart of Luffy, Ace and Franky had not appreciated the additional weight of Usopp. As a result, the two inner wheels had left the rails and risen under the inertia force of the vehicle when reaching the next sharp spin, and the cart had been ejected out of the railway aqueduct.

With eyes bulging out of their sockets and mouths wide open in a unison scream, the four passengers tumbled down into darkness.


	39. Story V, Quest, Ride & Kill 1

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

Ride & Kill ~Part.1~

…

**EL DORADO, ABANDONNED MINE, UPPER GALLERY**

"Tsk…" sneered Sanji while chewing the end of his cigarette with an annoyed expression.

Still following the trail of the person he was tailing ever since his entrance in the mines, Sanji had arrived at the end of the principal upper gallery. Like many other stone corridors, his path had led him to a high ceiling circular stone arena connecting tenths of galleries. The wide cavern which in the past had been used as the Registration Office had apparently been revived and was all lit on.

"Can't reveal myself now, can I…?" grumbled the blond-haired gentleman while not stepping in the wide-open space enlighten by year-old light bulbs which were sizzling with worrying crackling sounds.

Hiding carefully behind a stone angle, Sanji inspected the surroundings.

Huge and heavy-looking bags of dirty clothe were piled up against the wall on the opposite side, and he had no trouble deducing it was the stolen gold lying there. His lips stretched into a joyful smile at thinking that such a discovery will grant him a lovely thanks and wonderfully grateful smile from his dear _Nami-san_. But the satisfaction was of short duration, as his eyes caught sight of an unknown silhouette not far away from the valuable stock.

At the other end of the cavern, speaking actively with the one Sanji had followed until here was standing a weird-looking old man, quite fat especially at abdominal level, and with dirty facial hair growing grey with age. The other half of his face was covered with a black mask, and his stripped outfit was bearing a distinctive number on both the front and back.

With such an acoustic advantage as a circular cavern, Sanji had no trouble hearing what their conversation was about, and his eyes narrowed in a deep dissatisfied rictus.

"Smells bad for Fuu-chan, Ace and their nakamas, tsk…" he muttered in an irritated tone.

* * *

**MEANWHILE, SHAFT OF THE FORMER CAMPING AREA**

SHUN. The cart transporting Nami, Robin, Fuu and Chopper was slowly and peacefully coming to a stop.

They had entered a circular cavern resembling an arena, with tall gorges bordering each part of the shaft and leading to the surface. The shaft was barely fifteen metres below ground level, and open to the sky, before pursuing itself on the right for a hundred metres long, a bit like a valley enclosed by pitched slopes. At the other end of the gorge, they could see a couple of openings leading to lateral galleries.

The fleeting after-image of a wild animal escaping towards its burrow gave them the impression that humans had not been visiting the place for a long time. The impression was deeply reinforced when they saw the shadow projected by a large desert bird circling around them, before landing on the dry-cleaned skull of a cow which was resting in the dust nearby.

_Why is it that vultures in Westerns always love perching themselves on animal skulls…? _thought Fuu with a blasé drop of sweat appearing at the back of her head in front of such a show.

But a loud voice interrupted her train of thoughts.

"Can someone explain me why we're ALWAYS getting separated as soon as things are getting serious?" Nami exploded while swiftly jumping out of the wagon.

"It is a mere matter of statistics I suppose…" calmly answered Robin who had already disembarked the cart, while Fuu and Chopper in his plushie form were following and stepping safely on the rocky ground, "The chances of getting separated in several groups are dependent from the number of people composing the initial group. Never minding the fact that some of us do not want to, or just can't follow the rest of us peacefully, we already have a resultant probability multiplied to the power of eleven… so it would have been a mathematical miracle to all stay together."

"Tsk…" Nami sulked, for perfectly understanding the mathematical logic behind Robin's suggestion and being unable to find any argument to retort.

_I wonder if I should share the common knowledge that mangakas prefer showing off everyone's individual abilities instead of drawing groups of bystanders on all pages…? _paused Fuu with an amused sigh at remembering the debate she had had with her brother on the very same topic back in the real world, _After all, it wouldn't have much interest in a story to have so many characters if the hero was always with them to save the day… I guess Clow was kind of right about scenario-making… but I can't say that to Nami, sigh…_

_Besides, I'm under the feeling that Robin is right this time. After all, since we needed to split for transportation, it was highly probable for us to get separated at one time or another… Some simple mathematics formulas…_

"But can you explain me why every time we get separated, Luffy ends up somewhere else, huh?" asked Nami with still an angry tone, her expression making Robin and Fuu smile faintly at hearing the real reason troubling their friend.

"Well, Senchou-san represent only one entity in the formula, just like you, so in order to have the both of you in the same team after separation, it gives us some combination of two on eleven…" began Robin with a smile half-mocking yet half-serious, for knowing that Nami was even more skilled in this kind of estimation than herself.

_Oh my… back to math lessons… _inwardly sighed Fuu while polling her memory to find some traces of her studies back in the real world, _I hope Robin won't push as far as explaining why Nami repeatedly ending up outside of Luffy's team is also in itself a probabilistic wonder, sigh…_

"Hum…" was trying to speak Chopper, poking Nami's leg with his pawn.

"Huh…?" Nami reacted, cutting short to their mathematical debate, "What is it Chopper?"

"I think he wants to talk to us." informed Chopper while pointing at a tall silhouette standing above them, at the level of the ground on the edge of the shaft.

"Huh…?" Nami, Robin and Fuu wondered in unison while raising their eyes towards the man.

_A Beagle Boy… _Fuu deducedwith a frown at recognizing the peculiar fat body shape of the outlaws from the comics of her youth.

"T'ree garls and their pet, h're… Gonna tak' care 'f them." spoke the low ungracious voice of the man as he was making his report in a small yellow-and-black-stripped Den-Den Mushi.

_Oh, a way more courageous one comparing to what I was remembering…_

"One of our robbers…" screeched Nami with an angry tone before calling over to the man in a louder voice, "Hey you! Give us back our gold immediately – and if there is more than just ours, it's even better – or we'll be the ones to take care of you!"

"Whut?" reacted the Beagle Boy with a rictus of annoyance.

"Yare yare…" smiled Robin with an amused expression for the parenthesis in Nami's threat.

_Oh my… _thought Fuu with a similar amused smile, but a bit more concerned at hearing threats being exchanged already.

"He called me a pet, just now, right?" asked Chopper with a vexed expression, while Nami and the robber were exchanging threats with louder voices one another.

"It's because he doesn't know the real you." comforted Fuu with a smile for their little doctor.

"Definitely. After all, you've become much stronger during the months we have been apart, Isha-san." assured Robin with a similar reassuring smile for their nakama.

"Shut up! Stupid humans, it doesn't make me happy at all, what you say!" shouted Chopper with a joyful voice contradicting his insults and showing how truly happy he was inside.

Fuu smiled faintly at the reaction which at her beginnings in the crew had made her panic intensely that she might have hurt the pride of their doctor, but which was in reality the best proof of acceptance Chopper could make to a compliment.

_Becoming stronger… _thought Fuu while strengthening her resolution, _Yes, I can do it… even if not for me, for them I can do something… I must be feasible if I wish for it!_

"Fuu…" called Robin's calm voice.

"Yes!" answered Fuu with determination, still lost in her own mind.

"Death threats having for long been professed, we're now entering a fight where either of the party must die in terrible sufferings before the case can be closed…" Robin declared with unwavering tone while calmly pointing at Nami and the Beagle Boy, and more especially at the collection of throbbing veins of rage on their temples.

"Whaaaaaat?" panicked Fuu at seeing the situation which couldn't have grown worst in the small little unique minute which had passed.

_How come? _she worried while looking at the black aura emanating from Nami and from the thief, _Ever_ s_ince when did Nami prefers to get money back by fighting rather than negotiating? Becoming stronger and spending too much time with Luffy is definitely not promoting pacifist solutions, grr…_

A small ball of anxiety built up in Fuu's throat as she saw the Beagle Boy reach out his hand towards his pocket.

"Get ready!" Nami instructed with determination while assembling her ClimaTact in a fraction of second.

Chopper immediately changed into his 'Strong Point' form, and Robin took position for the use of her Hana Hana no Mi.

_I know what I wish for… _focused Fuu while activating her Devil Fruit, making a faint web of light spread on the ground as fast as she could to enclose her nakamas, but without either of them noticing the faint glow reaching out to them.

"Ya're gonna die, now…" snarled the Beagle Boy with an extremely upset rictus.

He pulled out the item from his pocket.

A whistle…

CRASH. Nami, Chopper and Fuu collapsed on the ground, and even Robin seemed taken aback.

"What is he planning?" Nami exclaimed with a deep frown, when finally getting back on her feet.

"Who is he going to call for…?" Robin wondered with a suspicious look for their surroundings, her hands ready to pop up at any place to crush any thief wanting to ambush them.

The Beagle Boy blew his whistle.

"No… sound…" Fuu realized at hearing nothing although their opponent was evidently blowing it.

"Gyaa…" screamed Chopper while covering his ears in panic.

TILT. Nami, Robin and Fuu instantly turned towards him.

To their surprise, they saw him switching forms at a very irregular and painful rhythm, before stabilizing in his plushie form and shooting a painful glance to the whistle.

"Ultrasound…" Nami, Robin and Fuu realized in unison.

But before Nami or Robin could send an attack to make the whistle stop – Fuu having already kneeled down near Chopper to try and help him out – the Beagle Boy had pulled it out of his mouth to give them a mighty smirk.

"Let see ha' ya look all stomped on, little garl!" snarled the thief.

_Stomped on…?_

CRRR. A growing feeling of shaking made the stones nearby tremble.

Fuu looked as a pebble near her was trembling more and more, jumping and bouncing on the ground as if due to the after-shocks of something big drawing near.

_Deja-vu…?_ paused Fuu with a weird feeling for the long yet caved in rocky valley they were standing in.

"It's coming…" Nami informed while tightening her hands on the ClimaTact, her eyes pinned on the edges of the surrounding cliffs, where clouds of smoke were now appearing.

Fuu's eyes widened in disbelief at seeing hundreds of buffalos appearing on the edge of the canyon and starting to hurtle down the slopes at full speed, running so close one another that dodging them seemed impossible.

_A stampede of gnus…? No, of buffalos…! _confused Fuu while in her mind were juxtaposing images of what she was presently seeing with memories of an animated movie from her youth, a movie where a lion cub was running for his life in a canyon filled with panicking gnus.

"Robin!" called Nami while running towards her nakama.

"Leave it to me!" answered Robin while grabbing Nami, "Cien Fleur: Wing"

"Fuu!" called Chopper who had recovered from the ultrasound.

But at seeing his hazelnut-haired nakama lost in reminiscence at seeing the animals running wild towards then, he decided to take initiative:

"Jump Point!"

SHUN.

And when the buffalos reached the place where the four pirates had been standing, their intended targets were nowhere to be met with.

"Tsk!" ranted the Beagle Boy at seeing that his opponents had not patiently waited for the wild animals to stomp on them and had escaped towards the sky.

TILT. The gush of fresh air as she was rising in the air on Chopper's back cleared up Fuu's mind and she cursed herself for having forgotten the present scene was real and not some movie she was watching on TV.

"Sorry Chopper, let's switch!" she called while spreading her own white wings in a fraction of seconds.

"Sure!" answered Chopper while switching back into his plushie form – definitely the easiest to carry, especially for Fuu who always preferred not having to use a second 'spell' to make her passenger lighter.

"Grr, I'm turning them into roasted beefsteak!" Nami roared while preparing some thunderbolt in her ClimaTact.

"DON'T!" shouted Chopper with an authoritative tone which let the three young women speechless, "If it's this whistle making them act like that, then we should not hurt them! Why is it that humans always use animals like that…?"

The last sentence was lost in a whisper, as if the little reindeer was muttering to himself.

Nami paused in front of the serious expression of their doctor and repressed a smile at thinking he had definitely grown more mature during the months they had been separated.

"But they're too numerous! Robin, how long can you wings last?" asked Nami at contemplating the chaos under their feet.

"They should vanish in a couple of second…" answered Robin while repressing a sigh, "So Fuu, could you…"

But Robin had no time to finish her sentence, as she felt Fuu's hand calmly placed on her shoulder.

And inexplicably, she didn't believe her wings would disappear any time soon anymore. She watched as the same faint glowing web was entering her body, bringing her the feeling that anything she knew was now feasible.

"What is this…?" asked Chopper who had seen Fuu using the same power a bit before on him, "I could change into my 'Jump Point' without Rumble Ball after this… and it's weird, because I didn't think I needed the Rumble Ball at that time…"

"Amplifier!" Fuu smiled while putting her hand away from Robin's shoulder and offering it to Nami.

"What will happen if I take it?" asked Nami with a curious conniving expression for the glowing hand Fuu was holding out to her.

"You will be able to do what you believe yourself capable of doing, but not at the present." Fuu answered while trying to find the correct words to explain the 'spell' she had been imagining ever since her little training with the whole crew after they had left Fimbul.

_Even if I'm hopelessly useless in a fight, they're not! They all have their way of fighting but they're all excellent in their areas, so I should try and support them! Just like in a RPG, when I was always playing a Priest, or a Mage… since this Devil Fruit lets me learn my own 'spell', I'll use them for them! Supporting spells enhancing their abilities, just like a Bard – well, except I'll do them the favour of NOT hearing me sing, which would be the worst motivational 'spell' ever, sigh… _Fuu laughed inwardly.

"It's my first time trying it, though…" she warned with a jesting smile for her nakamas.

"Well, if it removes our limits, only for a bit, it doesn't matter if the new boundaries are not the ideal ones." Nami commented with a grin when taking Fuu's hand, "It's still better than the actual us!"

"Fuu, it's not good to force one's body to do things he's not used too…" Chopper warned with a worried frown.

"I do not think she is doing it the same way as Moria-san in Thriller Bark, am I wrong Fuu?" smiled Robin with a trustful expression.

_Damned, Thriller Bark again, I should really have read this Arc… _Fuu cursed inwardly, before praying that she had made the right choice when choosing which limits to remove in her nakamas' potential.

"I didn't change anything in our body, Chopper." she assured with a comforting smile, "What I enhanced is here!"

And she softly pointed at the little reindeer's head.

"The limits in our mind!" she specified with a knowing expression, "The real brake to our abilities which lies in the lack of confidence we have in our own potential… So anything that our body is able to do, when half-asleep or drunk, or in one-year-two-years-time, now you can do it."

_At least, I hope… _Fuu checked herself when thinking that using this 'spell' was easier thought than done and that she will definitely need to train and get better at using it before finally allowing her nakamas to release their full potential.

The expression of their young doctor had relaxed along the explanation, and he was now with eyes in star shape.

"Amazing!" Chopper exclaimed, "So I can use kung-fu or beams, now?"

CRASH. Fuu's confident expression collapsed into a discomfited one.

_How are beams supposed to represent his inner potential? Or is it that he plans to learn and use kung-fu in the near future…? Where is that coming from, seriously…?_

"Maybe you can use your multiple transformations more easily, now, Isha-san?" Robin helped out while repressing an amused chuckle at seeing Chopper's sparkling expression while standing just above Fuu's disappointed pout.

"Anyway…" called Nami with a glance for the animals under them.

The Beagle Boy had ever since jumped on the back of one of the buffalos – giving Fuu a deep frown at remembering her brother saying it wasn't that easy to mount Buffalos, especially without saddle – and was making them run without a rest under the harmful guidance of a really long whip. The cloud of dust risen by the hooves of the animals was effectively working as a screen to shield him from any direct attack, while the rushing beasts were a deadly weapon which would pierce and stomp to death anyone coming near.

"What are we supposed to do about that…? No way we would fly away without our gold back!" Nami declared with her usual nerve as long as it was concerning money.

"If we can't approach the thief, we won't be able to ask him information on the gold location." Robin advised with a calm composure.

"And getting stronger doesn't help if we don't want to hurt them!" sighed Nami with an apologetic smile for Fuu.

_True… _Fuu thought at perfectly understanding the problem at stake for she was always having it when fighting.

"I have an idea." Chopper said, his eyes filled with determination.

* * *

**IN THE MEANTIME, NORTH SHAFT SIDE GALLERY**

"Huhuhu… Can you repeat that again?" asked Usopp with a proud air while striking a pose.

"Like I said, the four of us were suuper too heavy for the cart and we left the railway." Franky sighed while crossing his arms, world-weary to have to repeat the whole again to Usopp who had by now regained consciousness, the bump on his head having even resorbed at inhuman speed, "Mugiwara and Hiken fell until the bottom but I sent my suuper 'Strong Right' to hoist us in a lateral gallery mid-way in our fall…"

"No no, not that part!" interrupted Usopp with a proud attitude, "The one about how the Great Usopp-sama saved you all from a fall in the precipice by heroically aiming at the red-handed lever and wonderfully efficiently activating it for everyone's sake?"

Franky let out a deep sigh, not wanting to dwell on the episode more than necessary. And hopefully for him, they were now reaching an open space at a large crossing of galleries.

"What the…?" wondered the blue-haired cyborg when looking at the beehive-looking cavern with multiple corridors and galleries converging towards the centre of the arena.

Francky noticed a crouching silhouette on one side of the arena.

A cow-boy hat lowered on his face to cover his eyes from the light during his nap, a fat man with facial hair and wearing a pair of blue jeans, a yellow shirt and a black vest was sleeping on his back. Two colts were laying in his leather belt on his side on his hips, and star-shaped spurs were adorning his brown cow-boy boots. The only thing that would have prevented Fuu from confusing him with another of her comic heroes was the corpulence and the blatant lack of charisma.

"Hey!" called Franky while coming near to the man.

A snore answered him.

"HEY!" repeated Franky while this time giving a kick in the sleeper.

A low grumble of pain answered him this time and the man with the yellow shirt lifted the edge of his hat to shoot a glance at the two pirates.

"Ah…" he seemed to realise something and lazily pulled himself back into a sitting position.

Franky paused a moment, as if waiting for his sense to come together before asking him where they could find the thieves hide-out.

"Oh…" realised the cow-boy when feeling something vibrating in his pocket.

And he very lazily and sloppily pulled out a yellow-and-black-stripped Den-Den-Mushi out of inside his vest, holding it by its tail, while the poor animal was ringing with a discontent tone at being treated in such a way.

"Yea'…" he spoke with a voice even more tired than all what his look and previous attitude could have presumed.

"Intruder, intruder! What the hack ar' ya doing?" went on the Den-Den-Mushi which had turned a bit grey and hairy with a black mask on his eyes at mimicking the person calling.

The cow-boy calmly and unexpectedly hung up, with still a laid-back attitude which was starting to get on Franky's nerves.

One second passed…

Two seconds…

He finally turned his head at desperately slow speed towards Franky and Usopp.

"Ya're the intruders…?" he asked with a flat slow lazy voice exempt of the smallest tension.

"You can say that…" answered Franky while arching an eyebrow, quite fed up with the cow-boy's attitude.

"Oy oy, Franky, do you think it's a good idea to tell him?" Usopp was starting to panic, "What if he's one of the robbers?"

"All the better!" answered Franky while crossing his arms in a challenging pose, "We need our gold back and we don't have time to lose in this suuper big mine looking for them."

"I see…" muttered the cow-boy with a resigned tone, "So ya're the intruders…"

Usopp tensed at seeing the man slowly rising his hand to bring it to the inner pocket of his vest.

But against all expectations, the cow-boy only pulled back a black mask from it and very slowly placed it on his face and tied it up behind his head.

"He's one of the robbers!" panicked Usopp while pointing in panic at their interlocutor, "One of these… B… Beagle Guys!"

The man with the yellow shirt sluggishly got himself on his feet, at some impressive slowness, and placed himself into position, both hands above his colts, ready to draw them.

"Look, he wants to fight now!" Usopp panicked while looking around for a spot to hide.

"Ya're unlucky… I'm the b'st sniper 'f El Dorado and now I'm all wak' up, ya're not walkin' away…" the Beagle Boy declared with a more serious yet desperately slow tone.

TILT.

Usopp had stopped his steps, cutting short to his plan of finding a safe place to hide.

Franky couldn't help smiling at seeing their sniper turn around with determination and prepare his Kabuto with a challenging pose.

"Who talked about walking away?" retorted Usopp with a proud air, "You're maybe the best sniper of El Dorado, but I'll show you what it means to be the King of Snipers!"

"Int'resting…" mumbled the cow-boy with a faint smirk which seemed to cost him all the efforts in the world.

"I let you take care of it, then…" Franky smiled while turning his back to the both of them and heading towards a lateral gallery with a small gesture of the hand.

"Who said ya cou'd go…?" spoke the Beagle Boy.

PAN. PAN. PAN.

Two holes dented the rock at Franky's feet and one bullet rebounded on his torso – hopefully at some place reinforced by steel.

"Wh…. What the…?" exclaimed Usopp and Franky, swiftly turning back from one to another and considering the Beagle Boy with utmost surprise for not having seen the revolvers leave their holsters.

"Faster than my shadow…" announced the cow-boy with a satisfied smirk.

"Faster than…" began Usopp with a drop of anxious sweat appearing on his temple.

"… his shadow…?" finished Franky while arching an eyebrow at what seemed physically impossible to an engineer as himself.

A lazy yet cold as ice smirk found its way on the cow-boy's lips.


	40. Story V, Quest, Ride & Kill 2

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

Ride & Kill ~Part.2~

…

**EL DORADO, ABANDONNED MINE, NORTH SHAFT SIDE GALLERY**

PAN. PAN PAN PAN PAN.

Another salvo of bullets coming from anywhere and everywhere at the same time flew towards Usopp and Franky.

"Damn it!" ranted Usopp while dodging as well as he could and pulling some ammunition from his own bag to counter-attack.

"Himawari Boshi!" called Usopp as five Kayaku Boshi were shot at the same time in a pentagon pattern.

But the 'Sunflower Star 'attack missed, leaving to the King of Snipers barely enough time to jump backwards to avoid the counter of the Beagle Boy.

"Tsk!" Usopp clenched his teeth while dodging the rebounding bullets, but without having been able to see his opponent draw.

On the sidelines, Franky had also avoided the attack, and his expression was turning more and more serious as he was pondering if he should go and help their sniper out.

"Faster than his shadow? Don't fuck with us, there's just no way!" the blue-haired cyborg grumbled between his teeth.

He watched over the duel of Usopp with the Beagle Boy for a couple of minutes more, and a huge drop of sweat appeared at the back of his head at realizing that their enemy's speed wasn't just pretense, but Usopp's dodging speed wasn't just for show either.

"Heehee… Speak about some suuper efficient running-away techniques…" he half-laughed at seeing their sniper matching the out-of-the-physical-world speed of his opponent.

Back to the duel, Usopp had all his attention focused on his opponent, trying to see the motion of the revolvers but he couldn't manage to see them leaving their holsters.

"If I can't see him…" he ranted while pulling different ammunitions from his special bag, "then he won't see me either! Cho Kemuri Boshi!"

The smoke leaving his 'Special Star' covered the inner space of the cavern at prodigious speed, and soon both pirates and the Beagle Boy were engulfed by the smokescreen.

"Hu'…?" slightly reacted the Beagle Boy at losing sight of his opponent.

But Usopp had already his next attack prepared, having perfectly memorized the position of the thief.

"Kamakiri Ryūsei!" he called while shooting a high speed Kayaku Boshi in an upward arc.

The 'Mantis Meteor' erupted in a green explosion, the strength of the attack dispersing the smokescreen.

"Did he get him?" wondered Franky from the distance while narrowing his eyes to try and see the remnants of the Beagle Boy in the fraying clouds of smoke.

A shadow slowly grew more precise under the veil of the smoke, the shadow of a standing man with barely a scratch.

"D… damn it!" exclaimed Usopp at seeing his attack hadn't even succeeded in making his opponent leave his original spot.

"No' bad…" the Beagle Boy smirked.

TILT. TILT. Usopp and Franky twitched at seeing the thief slowly drawing both revolvers from his holsters.

"Tim' to get s'rious…" muttered the Beagle Boy.

"Damn it!" roared Usopp while dashing on the side.

PAN PAN PAN. PAN PAN PAN. A restless salvo of bullets came flying from anywhere and nowhere at the same time, at even higher speed than before.

"No way…" Franky started to worry at seeing the countless bullets targeting Usopp once if not twice due to the rebound.

The blue-haired cyborg crossed his arms in front of his chest, and hesitated a couple of seconds to join the fight, but something in Usopp's countenance prevented him.

"Damn it, why is this suuper coward now facing enemies like he was a hero or something?" ranted Franky between his teeth, at seeing that Usopp was apparently still in control of his emotions despite running around like crazy to avoid the salvos of bullets.

Franky nervously tipped his fingers on his forearm, conflicting motivations running through his mind.

"USOPP!" he shouted when he couldn't hold it anymore, "Finish this suuper annoying thief off! He'll run out of ammunitions at one time or another!"

TILT. The two fighters reacted to the call and turned their heads towards him.

"Hum…. Is thut whut ya're thinkin'…?" the Beagle Boy asked in his flat lazy tone devoid of the smallest tension.

"Huf huf…" Usopp was catching his breath while eyeing his opponent.

_I know… that's why we're waiting for, right… _he thought with a persistent stare for the two revolvers in the Beagle Boy's hands, _But he should already be out of them, damn it… How long is that going to take?_

"S'rry but I j'st need to reload once…" began the robber with a faint provocative smirk, "… at th' end 'f th' episode."

SHIN. A long silence welcomed the declaration, as the wind was blowing in the circular cavern, as if to emphasize the sensation of emptiness and disbelief.

"At the end of… the episode…?" Franky repeated, completely dumbfounded.

_THERE IS NO DAMN WAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT IS POSSIBLE! _he roared inwardly, mentally trying to find a plausible reason for cartridges to be always full but always reaching the conclusion that such a trick was impossible with powder cartridges.

On the other side, Usopp had frozen in a state of growing panic, the hope on which he had been counting to win over this duel having been destroyed in one sentence.

"Ya'll see…" concluded the Beagle Boy.

PAN PAN. PAN PAN PAN PAN.

A new salvo of countless bullets detonated.

"Tsk…" Usopp clenched his teeth as a deflected bullet grazed his leg during his dodging.

_Multiple shooting without needing to reload? Don't fuck with us! _

PAN.

A rebounding bullet dug into the stone ground.

TILT.

"What the…? Wait a sec'" Franky reacted at seeing the hole at his feet.

He briskly turned his head towards a nearby stone column-like rock, then towards one of the gallery stone wall: the denting of the metal bullet on the rock could still be seen.

_There's just no way it could have come from… from…_

His eyes frowning with seriousness turned towards the Beagle Boy who was still firing his two revolvers at a speed making them unable to see the detonation, but the echo of the numerous hits was always resonating in the huge cavern and its lateral galleries.

"Don't tell me…" Franky clenched his teeth and quickly turned his back to leave the duel area.

"Huf huf…" was panting Usopp, ready to brandish his Kabuto at any time, but too busy running around to have time for a counter

_Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, scary scary, let's run away! _was screaming a voice in his head.

_Shut up, this is a duel of snipers! _was retorting another voice with authoritative tone, still in his head.

_I can't fight such a monster! _was weeping the first voice with panicking tears.

_Didn't you decide to become someone your nakamas could rely on? Didn't you train your hardest until you could meet with them so that they can count on you starting now? _scolded the second imperious voice.

TILT.

"True…" Usopp admitted while suddenly stopping his running-around.

"Wh… whut?" paused the Beagle Boy, slightly surprised and bothered to see his target stopping his escape.

"It's true…" Usopp repeated, the eyes under the shadow of his goggles, as if speaking to himself, "I promised."

His hand softly patted the small leather bag in which he was keeping his ammunitions.

SNAP.

His teeth clenched as he suddenly built up his resolve and he dived his hand in the ammunition pocket at full speed, before forcefully pulling out three strangely-shaped stars.

"I promised I would get stronger to be able to stand next to them!" Usopp roared with determination while standing in fighting pose in front of his opponent.

He glanced at the green ammunitions between his trembling fingers.

_I won't be afraid anymore! _he ordered himself while hardening his grip around his kabuto, the trembling stopping gradually.

"Midori Boshi…" began Usopp while arming his kabuto with one of the strange stars.

PAN. PAN.

Two detonations – only – cut short to his call, and one bullet grazed his cheek, but Usopp didn't run away.

"Sargasso!" he shouted while shooting.

A green-coloured shot left Usopp's weapon and flew straight towards the Beagle Boy.

PAN. PAN.

Another double shot – only – at light speed left the two revolvers, and a faint green smoke rose as the cutting down parts of Usopp's 'star' were falling on the ground.

"Heehee…" the King of Snipers crooked a smile.

"Hu'…?" wondered the Beagle Boy.

"What do you think a warrior need to survive on an Island where Nature itself rejects him?" Usopp asked in a calm composed voice.

POP.

"Whut the…?" exclaimed at slow pace the thief at suddenly seeing the 'Midori Boshi' he had just shot down activate.

The different seeds contained in the 'star' suddenly started growing at exponential speed, turning into an array of resilient seaweed.

PAN PAN. PAN PAN. PAN PAN.

The Beagle Boy fired restlessly by series of two shots at the growing wall of weeds which was developing at his feet, but the bullet only got tangled in the net of plant without any damage whatsoever.

"He learns how to be more resistant than a weed…" pursued Usopp with a proud arrogant smile, playing with one hand with the two remaining strange 'stars', "And also to attack like the Devil!"

The last two 'Green Stars' came flying near the Beagle Boy, and landed at his feet.

"Midori Boshi: Devil!" called Usopp with a triumphant expression as he was deploying his attack.

POP. POP.

"Guuuuuuuhh'…!" the thief screamed – or rather a muffled scream with his usual lazy tone – as he felt his feet leaving ground.

Usopp grinned victoriously as the two huge plants with huge mouths and leaf-like teeth had dived onto the robber to gulp him down – and that one of them had been quicker than the other, making the losing carnivore plant angry enough for it to start attacking its kin to win the prey over.

"So, who is the greatest sniper, now…?" Usopp asked in a rhetoric pedantic tone for his opponent who had just disappeared in the big plant mouth, "Hahahahahaha…."

A large drop of seat appeared at the back of Franky's head as he was witnessing – from a distant above lateral gallery opening on the central cavern – their black-haired sniper so obviously proud of himself and starting to strike victory poses with a really arrogant air.

"Hum…?" the blue-haired cyborg smirked while nonchalantly throwing above his shoulder two inanimate revolvers still warm for having been used recently, "And who gave him some suuper help getting rid of the weird floating guns in the different galleries that were making him run hard…?"

Franky looked down at the weird carnivore plant which had gulped down the Beagle Boy, and remembered the moment the simultaneous attacks had come first, rebounds and speed giving the illusion of the thief being a super-human sniper.

"This guy… maybe a Devil Fruit user…? Or maybe not…" he mumbled while massaging his chin, "But looks hard to ask him now, heehee…"

Franky then watched over their victorious and talking-alone nakama, and a smile came to his lips as he was jumping down in the arena to come and meet with him.

"Yeah, well…" muttered Franky while shrugging his shoulders, "It was a suuper duel, after all…"

TILT.

"What did you say? What did I just hear you say?" Usopp dashed towards the blue-haired cyborg with a self-conceited grin, "Can you say it again, hum?"

"Ugh!" dodged Franky with an annoyed grumble.

"It was a super duel worthy of the King of Snipers, isn't it?" insisted Usopp while crossing his arms in front of his chest in a gratified pose.

"Yeah, yeah…" sighed Franky while walking towards the huge carnivore plants, followed by Usopp who was still complimenting himself for his victory.

The cyborg shot a glance at the 'Devil' which had swallowed the thief.

"But if you had a suuper weapon like that in stock, why didn't you use it before…?" he asked with a perplexed tone.

TILT.

Usopp stopped his monologue of self-congratulations and turned mechanically his head towards his blue-haired nakama.

"W… well, y… you see…" he begun with an ill-at-ease expression.

POP.

Usopp didn't have enough time to finish his sentence, as the second carnivore plant had swooped on him.

"Gyaaaaaaa!" shouted Usopp while fighting with the big mouth not to get swallowed entirely, his legs fighting frantically to stay on the ground while the upper part of his body was already in the plant's mouth, "Let me go! Let me go I said, I'm your master now!"

An even bigger drop of sweat appeared at Franky's temple at such a sight.

"What the…? So it's just he hasn't mastered them yet, tsk…" he sighed while looking at the covered-by-plant-saliva Usopp giving a kick in his 'Midori Boshi' to protest against being eaten by his own ammunitions.

* * *

**MEANWHILE, CANYON OF THE FORMER ELECTRICITY GENERATOR**

"Okay/Sure/Alright!" exclaimed Nami, Robin and Fuu with an energetic nod.

"Great!" Chopper grinned widely.

"That's a great plan, Chopper!" approved Nami with an appreciative wink.

"Bakayaro! That's absolutely not making me happy what you just said!" ranted Chopper with a contradicting joyful dance.

"Cho… Chopper…! Stop dancing on my head…" complained Fuu while trying to make their little doctor keep its balance on her shoulders.

"Yare yare…" smiled Robin at such a show.

"So… if everyone gets their part, shall we get going?" asked Nami with an anticipating tone.

Under them, the buffalos were still running wild in circle, bumping into each other at a frantic and dangerous pace, completely gone wild by the restless silent torture of the ultrasound whistle.

"Isha-san, are you alright?" asked Robin with a concerned glance for their little reindeer on which the same whistle had had terrible effects previously.

"I'm perfectly fine, thanks!" grinned Chopper with an ecstatic fuzzy expression, each side of his face having suddenly turned curly and hazelnut-coloured.

"Don't use my hair as earmuffs!" ranted Fuu with a deep blush of shame.

A small drop of sweat appeared on Nami's temple.

"It's going to be a problem…" she assessed with a sigh shared between concern and amusement.

"We can easily solve it." smiled Robin, "Let's just invert the order of our tasks."

Nami smiled in answer at having understood the subtle change of plan. She checked the palm of her hand in which was still glowing a faint white light in shape of a luminous feather.

"Enhancement, huh…? Let's try it out!" she declared while energetically brandishing her ClimaTact.

"Hum…" paused the Beagle Boy at noticing a change of attitude in his opponents rank.

"Cyclone Tempo: Controvento" Nami called while twirling her weapon.

FUUN. A strong wind suddenly blew on the canyon without having her to throw the parts of her ClimaTact, temporarily dispersing the dust cloud created by the running beast that had been keeping the Beagle Boy out of sight.

"Un Fleur: Surprise Poke" called Robin, while one of her duplicated arm wearing the same glowing emblem of a feather was appearing on the shoulder of the Beagle Boy.

"Hum?" reacted the thief while feeling something softly poking his shoulder.

He turned his face only to see a beautiful hand snatch the whistle out of his mouth and crash it into scrap iron.

"Clutch!" called Robin with a smile at finding it so easy to control both her wings and this additional 'Fleur' with her Hana Hana no Mi – thing that she would have considered out of her league a mere hour before.

"Chopper, your turn!" called Nami who couldn't maintain the wind anymore, letting the dust risen by the buffalo hooves gain ground again and starting to cover the canyon again.

"Let's go, Fuu!" instructed Chopper while clenching on Fuu's head while the hazelnut-haired girl swooped flying towards the central part of the canyon, "Brain Point: Scope."

Fuu reached the cloud of dust and headed in, waiting for Chopper to give her the dropping position.

"Here!" shouted Chopper when having finished analysing the whole of the herd motion and having found out the key vital weakness in it.

Fuu grabbed Chopper and activated her Devil Fruit to surround him into her golden levitation sphere before dropping him at the exact position calculated by the little doctor.

The little reindeer fell slowly as if floating during several metres, his Brain Point still activated and his little pawn still scanning his surroundings, before:

"NOW!" called Chopper, giving the signal for the main part of their plan.

TILT. Reacted the three girls.

"Guard Point" called Chopper, inflating into his fuzzy form and becoming suddenly bigger and bigger, reaching nearly 20 metres of diameter.

The surprised buffalos bumped into the fluffy hairy ball and gradually came to a stop once deprived of any place to run to.

"Whut…?" exclaimed the Beagle Boy, mad with anger at seeing his herd stopped and his mount coming to a halt too.

"Cuerpo Fleur." called Robin, as a duplicated half of herself was suddenly appearing on the back of the buffalos mounted by the thief.

"Whut the…?" exclaimed the Beagle Boy with a dumbfounded expression at seeing the archaeologist bust popping out behind him and grabbing his shoulders.

"Flying Clutch." called Robin while breaking the robber spin into some painful position before throwing it towards the sky under the push of a growing column of duplicated hands.

"Thunder Bolt Tempo" called Nami who had already accumulated electricity at the end of her ClimaTact.

Two crossing-down lightning flashes struck the dusty air and met on the Beagle Boy silhouette, hitting it forcefully and turning it into a smoking charcoal.

"Ugh…" pained Fuu when catching back in her flight the now-roasted-and-unconscious thief by the blacken collar of his outfit to bring it back on the side part of the canyon where Robin and Nami had already landed.

A couple of minutes later, Chopper was back to their side too, the Buffalos were peacefully procrastinating in the canyon and the Beagle Boy had still eyes in twirling shape.

"I might have gone a bit too strong on that one…" sighed Nami with a resigned expression.

"Yes, Nami! Your attack was so cool!" wondered Chopper with eyes in star-shape, "Almost like a laser beam!"

_Are laser beams his ultimate reference of 'coolness'…? _paused Fuu with a small sweat-drop of amusement on her temple.

"Well, sure, but had I known, I would have gone easier on it!" ranted Nami with a laugh, "Your enhancement spell sure is effective, Fuu!"

"Sorry…" the hazelnut-haired girl apologized with a shared smile.

"Indeed…" added Robin with an appreciative smile, "I wasn't expecting to reach the level where I can duplicate my whole body before two or three years at least…"

"Huh…? Robin, so you did thought about this kind of techniques before?" asked Nami with an interested expression.

"Of course, it is only natural for a Devil Fruit user to think about the potential of their power and plan its development along their life…" calmly explained Robin with a composed smile.

CRASH.

Fuu's face had collapsed into a discomfited pitiful expression.

_O… of course… Well, I must be the only person on the Five Seas not knowing what to do with my Devil Fruit, it seems… Sob sob… And here I thought I had made some progress thinking about this supporting spell, but I guess I'm still far far away from everyone else, huh…_

Nami noticed Fuu's sigh and smiled to her nakama.

"Well, I wouldn't know what to do with a Devil Fruit if I had one, except selling it…" she said while giving a wink to her nakamas, "So for me, you're all doing a good job with them!"

"B… baka! That's absolutely not pleasing me what you're saying!" danced Chopper with joy while insulting the one who had complimented him.

And on that one, Fuu felt the same as her heart was a bit dancing with pride inside, even if she was telling it to keep quiet and not rest on her good deeds.

Eventually, the thief came back to himself, only to find he had been thoroughfully tied up with his own lasso and that an orange-haired girl was looking at him with a really dark expression.

_Ouch… _Fuu thought when looking at Nami using her intimidation techniques again to extort information of the captured bandit.

But this one seemed to be a bit tougher than the first one back in town, and it refused giving any clue about the way to where they had stocked the stolen gold, even under Nami's darkest threats.

The last refusal made the mikan-haired navigator so mad – the thief having clearly insulted her – that she had knocked him out and was now back to her by-standing nakamas with numerous veins of rage bumping on his temple.

"Why is that damned thief so stubborn?" she ranted with an angry tone, "As a thief, it's always best to serve your own interest, and here his best interest is to tell us the truth, damn it!"

A bead of sweat appeared behind Fuu and Chopper's heads, and Robin stifled a faint smile.

"Ch… Chopper, do you have anything to help?" tried Fuu with a concerned glance for the robber, "Something like a serum of truth or the same style…?"

TILT.

"A what…?" repeated Chopper, quite puzzled.

"Well, a serum of truth… You know, the type of medicine you inject or make someone drink and it forces them to tell the truth…" explained Fuu with an hesitant tone, a bit taken aback by the obvious not-knowing expression of their little doctor, "Ca… you can't make it with plants, maybe…?"

TILT.

Now, both Nami and Robin were staring at her with surprised expressions.

"Something like that exists?" exclaimed Nami with delighted expression, before joining her hands in a grateful blissful expression, "Chopper, why haven't you told me before?"

The change of expression made the little reindeer and Fuu make a back-step, cautious about the succession of shadowy smiles and Berry-shaped eyes on their nakama's face.

"What a fantastic useful medicine it is! So lucrative a method, hihihi…" Nami laughed while everyone could tell she was already fantasizing the various uses of the serum to make people reveal the hide-out of their treasures.

"So… sorry, Nami…" mumbled Chopper with an hesitating tone, worrying that breaking up Nami's joyful bubble could be bad for himself, "I don't have this kind of medicine…"

"WHAT?" snapped Nami, back to serious mode.

Chopper jumped behind Fuu's legs in a frightened fashion, and Fuu could only try and tone down Nami's disappointment with her own excuses.

"From what I saw back then, I do not remember the Cipher Pol having it either, Kokkaishi-san." Robin added with a shared smile, "It seems like this medicine can not be found everywhere…"

The gaze Robin gave her made Fuu swallow back with difficulty.

_B… blunder alert… _Fuu thought while forcing a smile on her lips as if hoping to avoid suspicion that way.

The archaeologist and the hazelnut-haired girl kept eye-contact for a couple of seconds, before Robin avoided her eyes to talk to Nami again.

"Oh, but we did have a way for detecting lies from truth when interrogating suspects…" Robin pursued with a professional tone, "Rob Lucci especially was reputed to be really good at intimidating enemies and stressing them to the point their heartbeat would betray them when being told the truth…"

"I see…" sighed Nami in a resigned manner, "I should have kept my cool, then… Now it will be hard to make him feel pressured…"

"Indeed, the pressure has already burst out." nodded Robin in a casual teaching tone.

"Then Robin, you could go." Nami said while crossing her arms to think of a plan to make their prisoner speak.

"I have a better candidate." smiled Robin with an amused expression.

* * *

**A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER**

"Why me….?" Fuu was on her knees, shaking of depression, frustration and embarrassment, while Chopper was patting her back asking her if she was hurt somewhere.

"Well, I had already thought about it, a couple of times since her power is quite practical for theatrical intervention…" Nami calmly stated for Robin with a shared tone, "But she's just too bad at lying, so we can't really pull a nice scary intimidating glare out of her…"

"In that case, we just need her to be sincerely angry at her target, don't we…?" hinted Robin with a mysterious knowing smile.

TILT.

Nami's expression tensed.

"Are you talking about what we heard in the thief Den-Den-Mushi a while ago…?" she asked rhetorically with a mixture of concern and eager interest.

"Indeed…" calmly answered Robin while holding the sleeping Den-Den-Mushi confiscated from the thief.

"But what if she doesn't react the way we expect…?" Nami tried, more to confirm that Robin was thinking the same way that she did than to get a real answer.

"Well, you were the one to witness first-handed how she reacts when someone insults her nakamas…" smiled Robin while referring to the infamous moment that had earned Fuu the respect of many in the crew, way before Marine Ford.

What Robin didn't mention was that she also had fleeting personal memories about Fuu standing up for a little black-haired girl, even if the memory was more blurry than a dream.

"Fine with me… besides, if it works, I have already thought about how to use this trick in a very profitable way in the future!" grinned Nami with a flash of Berries in her eyes.

_I'm also interested in knowing what her limits are… _thought Robin with a glance for the girl she had rarely seen angry.

A couple of minutes later, Fuu had joined them near the thief, knowing – or rather thinking she knew – what her job was.

A splash of water fell from a cloud created by Nami's ClimaTact, awaking the Beagle Boy.

"Arf, ugh… Cough!" mumbled the robber.

His eyes cautiously focused on the barrel of a silver revolver, a revolver held by a girl with white wings.

"Sorry, but we are running out of time…" declared Fuu with as much conviction as she could, her expression neutral but her tone betraying too much concern as far as Nami was concerned.

She pulled out the trigger of her silver gun slowly, each ticking of the cannon emphasizing the pressure, just how she had always seen the meanies doing in spies movies back in the real world.

The Beagle Boy clenched his teeth and glared back at Fuu, even if drops of cold sweat were betraying his fear.

Robin noticed the flash of hesitation in Fuu's eyes in front of such a riposte, and she nodded at Nami, putting the real plan to execution.

"You see…"Nami chimed in with a bored tone, holding on the Den-Den-Mushi nonchalantly, "We heard about everything…"

TILT. Fuu reacted at this unexpected follow-up and gazed at Nami, but hopefully for her, the thief didn't see her hesitation as he had turned his head towards Nami too.

"Your little plan with the WhiteBeard's Pirates…" kept on Nami while shooting a knowing look at the thief, even if her whole speech was constructed for someone else.

TILT. Fuu's eyes had widened.

"Yes, we know about it…" chimed in Robin too, cornering the thief by stepping closer, "Do you really think you'll get away with something like this…?"

TILT. Fuu's body started trembling of worried potential outlooks.

"Do you think you can just harm them in such a lowly way and walk away unhurt…?" pressed Nami with a serious tone.

TILT. Fuu's breathing had stopped and her whole expression frozen.

"J'st shut your trap, th's scum only wanted…" begun blurting out the thief, before an ominous feeling prevented him from speaking farther.

SNAP.

Nami and Robin crooked a smile at seeing their plan had worked.

* * *

**A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER**

"I'm so sorry…" was pitifully sulking Fuu, squatted on the ground in a shadowy depressed fashion, her wings havin now disappeared, even if a remnant of torn feathers could still be seen on the ground.

Robin was patting Fuu's shoulder while comforting her she did well and that she won't judge her on her little 'snapping', while Chopper was trying to make the thief wake up, completely panicking that their prisoner had passed out again after having seen an angel turning dark.

"Maybe we overdid it again…" sighed Nami while looking at Fuu mumbling on the side that she was really-sorry-and-didn't-do-it-on-purpose, and a quick glance way behind them for the rocky wall of the canyon that had turned into a freezing iceberg only made her pout more.

_Kuroi Tenshi, indeed… _smiled Robin with a shared glance for the one she was comforting, _Just how much is she holding back, usually…?_

"Tsk…" ranted Nami while giving a short kick at the 'victim' at her feet, "Chopper, forget about him. We'll just find another way to find our way to their hide-out…"

The little doctor looked at the thief, then at Fuu's discomfited-and-extremely-sorry face, then at Nami's angry-but-trying-not-to-take-it-off-on-her-nakamas face and built up his resolve.

"L… leave it to me!" he declared with a tone full of assurance.

"Huh…?" wondered the three young women, a bit taken aback by the confident attitude of their usually scaredy-cat – correction: reindeer.

* * *

**A COUPLE MINUTES MORE LATER**

Nami, Robin and Fuu were mounting some of the bulls who had turned into peaceful and helpful grass-lovers under Chopper energetic and patriotic discourse.

"Wow…" marvelled Fuu at seeing their little nakamas had taken the lead and solved the problem so effectively.

_It's not that easy to ride on, but at slow pace it should be alright, I guess…_

"This change of animal attitude reminds me of Surume…" sighed Nami with a drop of resigned sweat appearing on her temple, "I knew Luffy was a bad influence on him, tsk…"

"Su… rume…?" Fuu paused while tilting her head on the side in a perplexed fashion.

"A very interesting meeting you missed, Fuu…" Robin specified with one of her mysterious smiles, "Senchou-san made some friends when we passed through Fishmen Island…"

"I see…" murmured Fuu, still curious about the 'friend' in question.

_Surume… 'dried squid'…? Is it another of Luffy's weird nicknames…? Did he make friends with an octopus-fishman, I wonder…?_

But Chopper's call interrupted her train of thoughts, that wouldn't in any case have brought her close enough to the truth of imagining her brother's hero befriending a Kraken.

"Let's go!" commanded Chopper, mounting a buffalo too.

And with the little reindeer taking the lead of the little heard towards the thieves hide-out, the buffalos graciously escorted the four pirates as a thanks to the little doctor for having ripped out the whip from the Beagle Boy.

* * *

**DURING THE MEANTIME, EL DORADO HIGH STREET**

"Everything went as planned…" was asserting a cow-boy lying back on a wooden wall, in the small confined alley separating two of the houses bordering the High Street, just in front of the Saloon.

"I told you you could trust the performing skills of the best con-artist of El Dorado!" grinned the cow-boy who had been the one to alert everyone, a few hours before, of the break-in in the Sheriff's office, with a pedantic pose.

"Nhahaha… Is that really something to be so proud of?" laughed another man whose outfit was more resembling the one of a pirate than the one of a cow-boy, "But I guess it comes quite in handy in our business…"

"So how about paying me the second half of my fees, hum?" offered the con-artist while holding out his hand with an impatient smile.

"Sure, sure…" smirked the pirate before snapping his fingers.

Another man who had been silently standing back walked closer and pulled a small yet heavy-looking purse out of his inner pocket to hold it to his superior.

"Don't forget," warned the pirate when placing the purse in the cow-boy's hand, "That if you don't hold your tongue, it's not only this money but also your life you'll lose!"

"Sounds quite troublesome, oy…" suddenly chimed in a masculine voice from above, "And here we'd expected you to kindly divulge the whole complot to us…"

TILT.

"Wh… what?" reacted the men while briskly turning their head upward.

Sited on the wooden balcony of the adjacent house, a tall blond-haired man with a relaxed composure was watching over them, like a bird on his perch.

"What if we say 'please'?" the blond man smirked with a confident expression.

"Da… damn it!" cursed the pirate at recognizing WhiteBeard's First Commander.

BAM. His precipitate U-turn came to a halt when he realised his attempt to escape had made his throat flirt with the thin sharp blade of a foil sword.

"Y… you are…" mumbled the pirate with cold sweat beading on his forehead at seeing the narrow glare the rufous-haired woman holding the foil was giving him.

"Someone who won't repeat 'please' twice…" threatened Anne with a calm and shadowy tone which gave goose bumps to the pirate.

"Oy oy…" chimed in the laughing voice of Marco who had jumped from the balcony down-to the narrow alley, closing down their clutch on the small group of complotters, "You'd better listen to her, as she never takes 'no' as an answer, heehee…"

Anne gave Marco a cunning glance for the hint, before focusing all her attention back on the man hanging at the edge of her blade.

It was the moment the pirate subordinate chose to pull a dagger from under his vest before pouncing at Anne, but the only thing he saw before losing consciousness was the fleeting dance of blue flames.

"So, let's resume the talk, should we…?" smiled Anne for her interlocutor, while trusting her nakama for dealing with the rest of the group.

* * *

**N.B. Authors Apology: It has been a long time. We're sorry for the hiatus. We have some matters in our private life but it is not excuses. We will do our best for the next update.**

**Our truest apology to you readers :(**

**P.S. This message will self-destruct once we update the next chapter.**


	41. Story V, Quest, Big Gundown

**THE DAY THE BENDED STORY OF ONE PIECE GOT MINGLED WITH MOUNTAINS OF GOLD**

…

The Big Gundown

…

**EL DORADO, ABANDONED MINE, FORMER MINERS' LIVING QUARTERS**

The cart slowly and naturally came to a stop, entering a large cavern with wooden houses built on the back wall. A couple of other corridors were leaving the place, but only one had railway going through, and it was the one the two pirates had entered from.

"Hum, it seems like our cart came to a halt, Zoro-san." Brook calmly stated between two sips of Earl Grey tea, "But we have been separated from the rest of the group, how terrible."

"If it's that terrible, how about acting a little more anxious, damn it!" Zoro snapped with an annoyed vein bumping on his temple at seeing the cool composure of their gentleman skeleton now, although he had been clinging to him for the entire previous roller-coaster ride.

But the swordsman quickly recovered his cool while massaging his head and glanced around before swiftly jumping out from the cart. Brook lightly followed – still sipping his tea – and both pirates looked at the options they had to keep going.

"Hum, let's take this one." Zoro pointed a one of the stone galleries.

"Yohohohoho, this kind of decision must definitely be let to you, Zoro-san." Brook announced in a rejoiced tone. "The good one must be the other one!"

CRASH. Zoro had collapsed of ashamed frustration with a hint – a lot of – annoyance.

"WHAT THE…?" he snapped, a vein angrily bumping on his forehead, "I clearly said THIS one!"

"Yes indeed." confirmed Brook without losing his composure, "And that's precisely why taking the other route is our safest and best way to reach our goal. Your record at getting lost is really impressive, Zoro-san, let's put it to good use."

SNAP.

An intense battle was now raging in Zoro's mind, opposing his pride as a directionally-challenged person versus his pride as a swordsman who can humbly recognize the limits of his potential in order to strive higher. Each feeling and each little argument of both sides was in turn making the number of annoyed veins on his forehead increase or decrease.

_Ev… even Brook, tsk… _Zoro was bitterly thinking, his relative respect for his fellow swordsman having never gone through such a crisis before.

TILT. TILT.

But Zoro's feelings were given mercy as an approaching wave of numerous aggressive auras made both pirates react and grow tensed.

"Yohohohoho…" softly laughed Brook in a challenging tone while abandoning his tea to place his bony hand on his walking-stick-looking sword.

"What do you want…?" Zoro asked in a threatening rhetoric tone, his thumb having already unsheathed one of his katanas of a few centimetres.

Shadows grew more precise as the silhouettes of strong built – especially strong at the abdominal level – men were detaching themselves from the surrounding stone wall.

Zoro's eyes narrowed.

More silhouettes gradually joined the ranks of the first ones, making Brook imperceptibly change the weight repartition of his body to get ready to any imminent fight.

They could now count perfectly how many fat and masked opponents had appeared all around them, even if both swordsmen weren't really keen on actually counting them.

Zoro crooked a glance towards the one who seemed slightly ahead than the others, giving the intuitive idea of him being some kind of a leader.

"Intr'ders locat'd." spoke the leading Beagle Boy in a small Den-Den-Mushi handset, "Getting' rid 'f them right n'w."

Zoro turned completely towards him, giving him a pissed and shadowy glare.

"Yohohohoho…" Brook laughed again, but with the serious tone of someone who was confident in their declaration, "Are you quite certain you can, gentlemen…?"

CLICK.

In less than a second, nearly a hundred pistol barrels had appeared and were pointing towards the two pirates, all around them.

Brook's fighting pose turned more acute, his whole attention focused on the surrounding threat, while Zoro coolly raised an eyebrow, his glare worth a thousand words.

"'f course. Whut do ya think ya can do?" the Beagle Boy snarled with a superior tone, "Sw'rds are useless now, ya know. We hav' pistols and m'ch betta weapons!"

CLICK CLICK. CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK.

The sound of cocking of the surrounding pistols echoed on the rocky walls of the cavern.

Zoro's eyes turned from left to right, watching as the countless fire weapons were leaving no gap in the surrounding crowd of opponents, getting them perfectly trapped.

He finally met the gaze of the leader and heaved a small sigh, his countenance showing all the disdain and disinterest of a dragon watching a rabbit poke at him.

SNAP. The Beagle Boy turned dark-red in front of such a cool and superior composure, his whole body starting to tremble with anger.

"GET TH'M!" he shouted while pointing his own heavy pistol towards Zoro's head, his teeth clenched of rage.

Zoro smiled.

BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.

Countless detonations resounded in the stone cavern, and the smoke covered the whole of the cavern centre, thick fog making the bandits lose sight of their targets.

SHIN. Silence fell in the abandoned mine.

TING.

The faint tilting sound of something metallic hitting the stone ground echoed in the calm yet high-pressured atmosphere.

"Whut the…?" the Beagle Boy screeched at seeing a bullet roll on the floor from the centre of their still-covered-in-smoke circle until his feet, before slowly coming to a stop.

TING TING TING TING TING. TING TING TING TING TING TING TING TING TING TING TING. TING. TING…

The tingling sound of many more bullets echoing on the ground chimed in as a slow high-pitched rhythm which was accompanying the gradual dissolution of the smoky fog in the cavern.

"No… way…!" gasped the thieves in a trembling stifled grumble, as the space in which the two pirates had been standing in mere seconds before was now empty, only occupied by fallen down metallic parts of bullets.

TCHAK. TCHAK.

The sound of two swords getting sheathed back made them all fall silent and turn pale.

"Kyutouryu Ashura: Makyusen…" coolly called a masculine voice in their back.

"Hanauta Sancho: Yahazu Giri…" calmly called another voice on the opposite side, but still from behind them.

The troop of Beagle Boys didn't dare to turn around, trembling too much to confirm the ominous feeling of having had their targets become hunters after having slipped past their trap to catch them in turn from their back.

_First verse…_

"Im… imp'ssible…!" the Beagle Boy leader gasped with cold sweats running down his spin as he was sloppily turning his head towards the green-haired swordsman and the tall skeleton who were serenely walking away from them all, not even looking back at them anymore.

_Second verse…_

"Imp'ssi…ble…" repeated the Beagle Boy, his pistol falling alongside his body in a devastated pose, his eyes not focusing anymore.

_Third verse…_

BAM… BAM BAM BAM BAM… BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM…

The thumbing sound of bodies falling unconscious on the ground behind them didn't even make Zoro and Brook turn around.

"Zoro-san…" Brook began with a serious deep voice.

"Hum…?" Zoro nonchalantly reacted.

"I still believe it is safer to take this way, please do your best to follow…" Brook sighed with a patronizing tone while pointing at the gallery that Zoro was NOT walking towards.

"JUST SHUT UP!" Zoro snapped while baring his teeth, quite on the nerves.

* * *

**MEANWHILE, LOWEST GALLERY**

"ACE! I found a way!" Luffy shouted with an ecstatic grin, hanging upside down with his elastic legs around a rock stalactite, his hand pointing at a side abandoned corridor dug inside the mountain at some ten metres above the ground.

"Let's go!" Ace smiled in answer while propelling himself to the level of the gallery thanks to his fire power.

"Shishishi." Luffy laughed while jumping in turn in the passage.

Both of them had fallen down to the deeper level of this section of the mine, not having bothered to stop their fall until they reached the bottom. Luffy had rebounded on one of his 'Gomu Gomu no Fuusen' and Ace had sent a stream of flames on the ground as counter-propelling to deaden the speed of the fall and land safely.

Ace had smiled at seeing that his younger brother had improved since the last time he had seen him and wasn't crashing anymore into anything available as a break to his trajectory. And Luffy had pout that it wasn't fair for Ace to have a cool way of landing too.

"We need to find a way up." Ace said as they were both starting to run side by side with enthusiasm, "Your nakamas can find their way without us, right?"

"Yeah, nearly all of them!" Luffy laughed.

* * *

**AT THIS MOMENT, SIDE GALLERY NEAR THE FORMER MINERS' LIVING QUARTERS**

"Achaaaaaa!" Zoro sneezed noisily, as they were running along the path Brook had chosen previously.

"Zoro-san, I'm sure everyone is concerned about you… This mine is a real labyrinth and all alone, we never know if you would be able to make it out alive." Brook said with a sympathizing tone, "Hopefully we will both leave this maze together and alive, even if I am not really alive anymore, yohohohoho, Skull Joke."

"JUST SHUT UP!" Zoro roared a second time, before getting interrupted by a second series of sneezing, caused by a couple of other concerned nakamas in distant galleries, "Achaa, achaaa, ACHAAAAA!"

* * *

**LOWEST SECTION OF THE ABANDONED MINE**

"Jan… Ken… Pon! Jan… Ken… PON!"

"Yeepee! My win!" Luffy exclaimed while throwing both hands to the sky with a proud happy grin.

"Damn it!" Ace ranted while looking at his 'Stone' fist which had just lost against Luffy's 'Paper' open hand.

"So we take this one!" Luffy decided while pointing at one of the four galleries at the intersection they had reached after running for a while.

"Sure sure…" Ace agreed with a sigh while massaging his neck with a grumbling countenance, slightly pissed to have lost to Luffy in a Janken match while he had always won him when they were children.

And Ace grew slightly more pissed when he had to pin himself on the rocky wall to avoid a huge round boulder the same diameter as the gallery which had fallen from the ceiling to roll down their way.

Luffy had been laughing hard before getting flattened like a crepe by the boulder, but not minding it much as he was made of rubber.

"Oy, Luffy!" Ace ranted a little.

"Shishishi!" Luffy was still chuckling hard.

The next corridors brought forth their lot of hidden traps with slamming slabs of stones falling on their tracks, weird trap doors leading to a hole garnished with pointy stalagmites, and collapsing passages nearly making them buried under rock.

"Shishishi! Ace, look, look! Do you think this ceiling there will open? Hey, look!" Luffy was laughing with a grin plastered on his face, truly enjoying himself in this abandoned mine full of surprises.

Small veins of annoyance were starting to pile up on Ace's temple, in front of Luffy's carefree attitude while he had been the one to take the wrong path and initiate the traps every time.

"Get serious, would you?" he finally snapped, grabbing Luffy by the collar of his vest to yell at him, "Your nakamas might be facing the same trouble right now!"

"Buuuuhh…" Luffy pouted with a stubborn face, "What's wrong with you Ace? Seriously, you're no fun, these days."

TILT. Ace's face crumbled in reaction to the unintentional reproach.

"This kind of thing is fun." Luffy grinned, his expression bringing back memories of carefree days full of adventures in Doa Kingdom.

Ace's grip on Luffy's vest weakened and he released his brother, in a daze.

_Fun… _he thought, as if the word sounded distant in his mind, _Fun…? How long has it been ever since I really found something fun…? Not just because everyone else's is having fun, but because I really feel the bliss…?_

Conflicting memories were rushing through his mind.

The bad times ever since Thatch's death were still bringing back a bitter taste to his mouth, even a year after they occurred. He had faced them all with pride.

The despairing times from Impel Down and Marine Ford were still making him tremble with frustration. He knew he could still not face properly either Luffy or his nakamas about it.

_Everyone had laughed, saying it was normal, saying there was no need for payback… But I…_

Good times had followed, with new adventures, with new meetings, with parties and drinks. He could remember himself laughing with everyone, he could remember himself talk back to Marco, tease Luffy and behave like a fool around Fuu.

But none of these feelings had had the taste of joy he had grown addicted to when living their nonsensical adventures as children in Doa Kingdom.

_This… carefree… excitement… just for the sake of it… just for the sake of a new world to discover… of a new path to take… where and when did I lose it…?_

Ace glanced at Luffy, who was now pointing enthusiastically at several parts of the large stone gallery they were standing in, his eyes sometimes flashing stars as he was imagining asking Franky to build the same type of funny traps on the Sunny. Ace's first thought at hearing the plan was to lecture his brother again to tell him to be considerate of his nakamas and not put them in danger… but he held back the words, realizing himself how his attitude must have been recently.

_I'm no fun… am I…? _Ace's lips slowly stretched in a smile as he was finally putting a word on the uneasy feeling that had been holding him back: frustrated gratitude and duty, _Should I just… give it up…? I can't keep them out of harm forever… I can't force them to let me be grateful to them… If I can't… 'care' about it… is it okay for me to feel a little 'carefree' now…?_

The run along the stone galleries lasted a couple tens of minutes more, punctuated by Luffy's contagious exciting reactions to each traps, and Ace's lips grew in a wider and wider thrilled grin.

"Prepare yourself, Luffy, I won't lose!" he called with a powerful voice as they were being raced by a huge boulder again.

Luffy laughed and jumped at his brother's pursuit.

The next traps met the unfortunate fate of being in the way of the two competitive D. brothers, and broke and got dismantled in their joyful race. The corridor behind them was left as scree and beheaded stalactites.

And at their enthusiastic-brattish-pace, Ace and Luffy finally reached a central cavern, where a multitude of options was now awaiting them as to where to keep going.

"Let's play it Janken!" Luffy grinned while jumping enthusiastically, his arm up to the ceiling.

"I won't let you win this time!" Ace grinned while getting in position.

"Jan… Ken… P…"

But Ace suddenly stopped mid-way, having noticed something was wrong with Luffy's stance.

_He's… changing… his choice… _Ace noticed as he was lowering his own choice to bring it to the final position, _according… to mine… W… NO WAIT?_

BAM. His hand flew back behind his back.

"Hum…?" Luffy paused, his hand open in scissor position having now no opponent to be compared with, "What are you doing, Ace…?"

"I should be the one asking you!" Ace thundered, quite pissed but baffled at the same time, "Y… you… YOU'VE BEEN USING HAKI?"

Luffy's expression froze.

SHIN. Silence fell for a second in the mine cavern.

Then Luffy's mouth slowly took a whistling-pout shape and his eyes shifted to the side in an obvious fashion.

"I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about." he muttered with a very monochord tone.

_LIAR! _Ace thought with an irritated vein bumping on his temple in front of such a blatant easy-to-see-through lie.

BAM. The next thing Luffy fell was the strong arm of his brother falling over his neck and shoulders.

"Tsk, that's why rookies are annoying!" Ace grumbled while rubbing Luffy's head with his fist while holding him in a lock of arm.

"Let goooooo!" Luffy complained while trying to stretch his head of Ace's catch, "And it hurts! Why does it hurt?"

"Of course, aho! What did you expect…?" Ace grinned arrogantly while releasing him with a superior attitude, "You're in the New World! Everyone here knows how to use Haki, at least a bit. The ones who can't never make it on this side of Grand Line."

"HEY? For real?" Luffy gasped, his mouth wide open.

"Don't go thinking you're all so special, damn it…" Ace half-laughed half-lectured while poking Luffy's dumb face right in the middle of the forehead, as if to illustrate his words.

"Ouch, this one hurts too!" Luffy cried while massaging his forehead.

"Understood?" Ace asked while pointing his finger at him, "Just because everyone can use it, then it's stupid to want and use it against one another in duels like Janken or arm-wrestling! That's our kind of Pirate Code in the New World. Don't go around messing up the tacit rules just because you're a my-pace rookie!"

"Huuuuuuuuummmm…" Luffy pouted in a stubborn way.

"What is it?" Ace asked while arching a provocative eyebrow, "You still want to go at it with Kenbunshoku Haki?"

"Shishishi!" Luffy grinned with a somehow serious challenging expression, his hands getting in position to start a new Janken match.

"Hum…." Ace's smile grew wider and more amused, his hands slowly coming to a similar position, "Bring it on."

Their eyes tensed, focusing on the empty space between them both.

Air itself seemed to materialize as particles were getting slower and slower in their vision, prescience and acute perception bringing to their sense the intuition of their opponent's next move.

Their hands left starting-block.

Slowly, really slowly, or at least it seemed, as their eyes were so focused on every single micro-second that the whole move was split into a million of eternities, a million of possibilities, a million of changes for their hands to change position…

The muscles of their fingers tensed, at light-speed, as fast as all the nerves of their bodies could allow them to react, fast enough for the eye of a normal spectator to only see a blur…

Their lips crooked in a smile, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes with clenched teeth, but always acute and captivated…

The hands were gradually coming into final position.

It was as if times had been flowing differently for the both of them, unblinking, unflinching, ever-changing eternity.

A last change, a last last change to adapt their opponent's last change…

And it ended!

"Phew…" breathed Ace, his eyes finally blinking with relief, his fist clenched in 'Stone' position even sweating a couple of flame-drops as he couldn't have completely gotten a hold of his Logia power during the previous intense Haki effort.

"Argh!" ranted Luffy as he was shaking off his two elastic fingers knotted in a 'Scissor' position and that had gotten irremediably crossed and tied when he had tried to change into a 'Paper' position at the last moment.

"HOORAY!" suddenly resounded a loud round of applaud around them.

_What the…? _Ace realized when turning his head around, having had been too much focus on his duel with Luffy to have noticed the many spectators who had shown up during that time.

"One more! Ace, one more!" Luffy was brattishly requesting with a sulking over-motivated expression.

"I bet on the smaller that time." "I stay on the orange-hat pal'." "Who hasn't taken their bet yet? Second round is on!"

"Ace, come on!" Luffy called, already in position for his revenge match.

_Is he for real…? _Ace half-chuckled.

"Okay, then, Luffy…?" Ace said with a knowing inquisitive tone.

"Hum, what?" Luffy asked, slightly perplexed by his brother's expression.

"Then the one winning this round gets to take them all down." Ace crooked a jesting smile, his eyes following on the side the number of spectators they had earned.

TILT. A couple of the men assembled reacted to the declaration.

"What…? What for…? Who…?" Luffy mumbled, quite puzzled but definitely curious about it.

"Them…" Ace paused, his knowing glance resting with instance on the lot of spectators who were all wearing masks and numbered long-sleeved stripped tee-shirts, "Our robbers."

"HEY…?" Luffy reacted while definitely abandoning the duel position to turn towards them all, "All these guys are the Doggy Balls?"

"IT'S BEAGLE BOYS!" ranted in unison all the men assembled there, baring their teeth of vexation.

"Oh, really…?" Luffy asked while tilting his head to the side in a very non-concerned fashion, "Whatever, who cares…"

"WE CARE!" roared in unison all the Beagle Boys, more and more vexed.

"I don't care." Luffy smirked as he was looking seriously in their eyes, his tone more jesting and level-headed than usual, making him look quite cool, "You took Nami's gold. You won't get away with it."

"Hum…" Ace smiled with a knowing side glance for his brother.

A second later, Luffy had dashed towards the crowd of opponents, who had barely time enough to draw their pistols to try and defend.

"I guess I'll just join in, heehee…" Ace chuckled while setting various parts of his body into fire.

The Beagle Boys – now a bit more organised and coming at Luffy from various sides – had by then to face with enflamed punches and kicks.

"Ace!" Luffy grinned as he jumped back in garde position back to his big brother.

"It's been a while…" Ace grinned back as he was getting to face the circle of opponents alongside his little brother.

"Hum!" Luffy nodded happily while remembering how their fights used to be in their teenage days.

"Let see how much you improved!" Ace teased while dashing forwards.

A high knee-kick followed by an enflamed sweep made a Beagle Boy meet noisily with the ground, while Luffy was jumping high from behind Ace's back to come and slam his feet in the face of the next thief in line.

A couple of elastic punches and uppercut-garde-elbow-hit-in-the-face later, a dozen of robbers had collapsed with no imminent perspective of standing up again anytime soon, and Ace and Luffy were giving each other a high-five, before resuming their tag-fight position.

"Sh… shoot them from the distance!" instructed a Beagle Boy a little smarter than average, at seeing it was no use in close-combat to approach the two pirates.

BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.

Countless detonations reverberated on the stone walls of the mine cavern.

"N… N… o… w… a… y…" the Beagle Boy muttered in a mouthful of scared flabbergasted pout.

Right in front of them, Ace's body was regenerating in intense flames where the bullets had hit him, and he had caught back his hat with one hand to pin it back on his head, its antagonist blue smileys seeming to mock his opponents' fruitless attempt.

Right next to him, Luffy had taken in a large number of bullets, holding them in with his elastic body.

"Wh… what is he…?"

But the Beagle Boy didn't have time to finish his rhetoric question as Luffy released the bullets, propelling them back to their senders at full speed, and most of them barely had time to dive towards the ground to avoid the hit.

"What the heck was…?"

And this time again the Beagle Boy didn't have time to finish speaking as Luffy's foot landed on his face, leaving a pretty deep sandal mark as he was gaining support to jump higher and kick another thief.

"Shishishi… !" Luffy grinned while sending his elastic leg whip a full line of opponents down to the ground.

"Not bad…!" Ace teased while grabbing a Beagle Boy by his collar before using him as a weapon to beat down another nearby thief, and finally sending him flying to crash on a couple other robbers standing at some distance and aiming at them with guns again.

The waltz of hits and defeated thieves lasted for a good ten minutes more, as if the two D. brothers were enjoying the simple hand-to-hand fight and didn't wish to rush it to its end.

Ultimately, though, none of their opponents was left standing and they hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Ba… bakemono…" muttered the leader of this group in a breath, left with no other choice than to press the red-alert-button of his small stripped Den-Den-Mushi before losing conscience.

* * *

**ABANDONED MINE, UPPER GALLERY**

"Hum…?" Sanji reacted, an unexpected call having drawn the attention of the grey-haired fat man wearing a mask.

The blond cook's eyes narrowed as he was trying to get a grasp of what was happening, but stepping even an inch more forward would reveal himself, and the tall muscular silhouette of the suspicious man he had been following until this part of the disaffected mine was still standing there on alert.

But no voice was coming from the portative Den-Den-Mushi the head of the Beagle Boys was holding: it was simply emitting a red pulsating light flashing in rhythm.

"Ne'd to go…" grumbled the fat old-looking man while putting the communication-snail back in his pocket, "Don't forget ou' deal!"

The tall interlocutor smirked and that was all that apparently needed the thief before leaving the cavern though one of the side galleries.

A minute later, Sanji could hear the noise of steel wheels gliding on rails.

_A mine cart…_ he deduced while waiting for the a few minutes more to be sure the noise was wearing down, giving him the certitude the old robber was far away.

Sanji shot a new glance in the cavern.

The tall man who had been speaking with the fat old Beagle Boy had taken out a Den-Den-Mushi from his black-and-white-cow-leather vest.

"H'ya!" he said when connecting to his interlocutor, "It's me. Yea' a bunch of idi'ts. St'rt the plan!"

"Crap!" Sanji clenched his teeth.

* * *

**BACK TO THE LOWEST SECTION OF THE ABANDONED MINE**

Luffy was sulking, hands behind his head and his cheeks puffed, following at slow pace.

"Less cheeky, now…?" Ace mocked with a snug grin as he was taking the lead in the stone gallery he had chosen after having defeated his younger brother at Haki-boosted-Janken.

"Not fair…" Luffy kept on sulking, "I was sure I would beat you…"

_I was sure too! _Ace screeched inwardly, still pissed to have nearly lost but definitely not wanting to show it, _How scary can he be? He barely learnt about Haki a couple months ago and he's already on par with me? Give me a break!_

He shot a glance at the carefree my-pace teenager behind him.

Luffy was still pouting like the little brat he had always been, like the younger brother always losing to his older brothers he had always been…

Ace's lips stretched in a smile.

_Pirate King… hum? _he thought with a proud protective gaze.

But Ace's thoughts came to a halt as he sent numerous aggressive presences drawing by.

Luffy had also tensed, stopping his sulking, and both brothers dashed forward at full speed, by instinct.

CRRR. An ominous noise of crumbling rock came from their back, but they didn't turn back, rushing forward as fast as they could, not even needing to use Haki to know they only had to run at that very moment.

Even if they had turned back, there could have been nothing they could do against a whole mountain subsiding onto one of its gallery, age, vibrations and something else having weakened the whole structure and made the whole area across which they were running more friable and unstable that a sand castle.

_Here… _Ace thought at spotting the luminous opening of the end of the gallery.

They both jumped, their feet not even finding enough impulse on the crumbling rocking ground getting engulfed in the mass of stone collapsing behind and under them.

A front tuck, ending in a stream of fire to soften the landing, and Ace slowly raised from his one-knee-to the ground position to scan their surroundings.

A front layout, ending in a Gomu Gomu no Fuusen to rebound and deaden the shock, and Luffy landed safely, readjusting his straw hat on his head.

The new cavern they were standing in was even wider than the previous one, with a ceiling losing itself at some tens of metres of high. The walls were all pierced with countless galleries like a giant termite mount. Some of them were paved with railways, some others were plain rock… and nearly all of these galleries were blocked by the tall fat silhouettes of the masked thieves.

"Ya manag'd to get th're…" suddenly rose a masculine voice.

"You must be their leader…" Ace said with a short surveying glance for the grey-haired beardy man who had advanced, his countenance and apparent age making him more likely to have a superior status to every other thief.

"Who is that ossan…?" suddenly popped out Luffy's remark, his face the picture of perplexity.

"Their leader." Ace calmly repeated, eying the man facing them with caution.

"Heeeeey? For real?" Luffy was taken aback, looking both pissed and surprised, "You're the one who stole Nami's gold? Give it back, Nami really likes gold!"

_Sigh… _Ace sweat-dropped a little at hearing the as-my-pace-as-usual challenge from Luffy's side.

"Mugiwara no Luffy…" screeched the old Beagle Boy at recognizing the _idiotic_ face of the rookie the most famous of Grand Line.

"If you don't tell us where it is, we'll get it back by force!" Luffy said while rolling his shoulders, his face growing more and more tense and his eyes frowning in a glare.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK. CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK.

The sound of many pistols getting cocked reverberated in the circular cavern, giving the endless impression of being surrounded even from the skies.

"Wanna fight?" asked the Beagle Boy in a sneer, "Ya're a very troubl'some bunch, but ya're not getting' away!"

Luffy and Ace instinctively resumed their back-to-back position, already instinctively knowing that this fight won't be as easy as the previous one.

_Most of them are out of reach for hand-to-hand combat… _Ace estimated with a quick glance towards the upper galleries, _Using fire would be useless too… they have the upper hand even if we attack from afar: distance gives them enough time to hide…_

Ace deadened the fire in his fist before it had time to even get enflamed.

"Purupurupuru…" a sudden yet familiar ring interrupted momentarily the accelerating pressure, bringing a relative stand-still.

"Yea'?" the Beagle Boy leader pulled a big portative Den-Den-Mushi from his pocket and pinned the transponder on his ear.

"…"

His greyish hairy eyebrows frowned deeply at hearing the piece of news, before hanging up.

"Humph… Troubl'some bunch…" ranted the old thief between his teeth while glaring at the two pirates.

He walked one step closer to the two D. brothers, staring at Luffy with annoyance.

Ace shot a back glance at him, and slowly resumed his garde position back to them, trusting Luffy to take care of what would be coming in front of him.

"Y'ur nakamas mess'd up our plans…" said the grey-haired robber, "S'me swordsm'n of y'urs… Tsk!"

"Shishishi…" Luffy grinned proudly, his tone challenging and confident, "You shouldn't have stolen Nami's gold!"

"N'mi…?" spoke the Beagle Boy, "Sh's y'ur girl?"

"Yeah!" Luffy nodded joyfully, his change of countenance even making Ace crash a bit in his back.

_Show some shame and priorities, aho…!_

"So th't was y'ur girls…" the old Beagle Boy sneered, the plural at the end of 'girls' making Ace tense and grow slightly flustered, but hopefully for him, he was still back to everyone else, "the ones th't numb'r 101.001 took car' of…"

TILT. Luffy's smile disappeared instantaneously, and Ace's cheeks cleared from his flush in a second.

"What did you say…?" Luffy slowly asked, his tone cool, almost chilly, and the eyes hidden under the shadow of his hair.

"Y'ur girls… y'ur pr'cious girls…" the thief leader repeated with a knowing smirk, "Now th'y've been all stomped on by b'ffalos. H'ndreds of b'ffalos in fury crushin' them! Th're gonna be nothin' left 'f them, nyarghahaha…"

SNAP.

That was the last word the whole of them heard.

"URF!" the Beagle Boy hurled up in pain a mere second later, holding onto his broken nose which was flowing with blood, while Luffy was rewinding the 'Jet Pistol' he has just launched at light speed.

The grey-haired leader didn't have time to catch his breath back as a tempest of elastic punches came flying his way, beating him to the pulp so quickly that he didn't have enough time to fall on the ground to avoid the rest of the attack.

BAM. His back finally touched ground.

Luffy brought his both fist back near his sides, still in very-pissed-and-serious mode, and shot a glare at his opponent.

"Touch Nami and you're dead!" he uttered with a very heavy tone, insisting on each syllable of his ultimatum, his eyes as cold as ice.

"G… get… th… them…" the Beagle Boy leader coughed blood and tried to crawl back to a reasonable position.

TILT.

But he was finally able to raise his eyes at the level above his fat belly obstructing his view, what he could see finished to make him suffocate him in his powerlessness.

From the lowest ground to the highest gallery, from the skinniest hidden gunner to the most largely built fighter, all his surrounding comrades were lying flat on the ground, foam coming out of their mouth and eyes having blanked out, staying wide open of shock as they had fallen unconscious.

"Imp…oss…ibl…e…" the grey-haired Beagle Boy eyes wandered in dumbfoundness from Luffy to the back of the one wearing an orange cowboy hat, and who hadn't turned back his way yet.

But even without turning back, his anger was palpable, and air around him was still frosty and intimidating, giving the thief the wish to run – crawl – backward as much as he could, while at the same time, some ominous feeling was preventing him from doing so, fear and survival instinct paradoxically contradicting each others.

Luffy had followed the change of expression of his opponent and had also started looking around. His face had relaxed into one of his perplexed and surprised Luffy-ish expressions and the first thing he did when finally understanding what the cause of it was:

"Ace!" Luffy exuberantly grinned while jumping leap-frog above his big brother's head to land in front of him with star-shaped eyes and enthusiastic fist-shaking, "You never told me! You can use it, you can use it too, right?"

The call made Ace snap out of his previous mindless state. He stared at Luffy's face and came to realize what had been going on.

"Damn it!" Ace cursed while bringing his palm to his face in a very annoyed fashion, "I used it…"

"Are you kidding?" Luffy exclaimed, still in boastful mode, "It's so amazing! I didn't know you had it too!"

" I don't…!" Ace shouted back, before stopping mid-sentence and looking away with an irritated expression.

"Hum…?" Luffy titled his head on the side, noticing something was wrong, "What's the matter with you?"

"I… I don't like it! You get it, now?" Ace said in a very exasperated tone, his hands not finding the right way to express his frustration and fluctuating between balled-up fists and clutched fingers wanting to grasp his thwarting to tear it apart.

"Why?" Luffy asked with his very straight-forward usual self, "It's cool."

"It's NOT cool!" Ace snapped, "You don't get it! I can't use it, I don't want to… I don't… it's nothing I can… nothing I can… nothing I can use because it's not mine, it's… it's… it's 'his'…"

Luffy was making his round face from the moments when he was obviously not getting what his interlocutor was talking about.

"It's not my power…" Ace confessed with an unsatisfied tone, "It's hereditary, apparently… It's something 'he' let me with the blood running in my veins… I'll never feel it's cool to use it because it's not mine, and I've sworn to come to his level on my own!"

Luffy blinked a couple of times, apparently processing the information but with no change of expression on his side.

"But you used it, just now…" he said with his monotone voice which was still managing to make a bull-eye every time he was opening his lips.

SNAP. Ace turned around, really pissed by how Luffy was always managing to put the finger right on what he didn't want people to point at.

"I was… pissed… okay…?" he answered in a mumble, as if ashamed to confess to himself he had lost control of one of the things he was the most determined never to lose control on for such a childish provocation.

"Hum…" Luffy pouted, his arms crossed in a perplexed pose.

"Just cut it out, it's…" Ace ranted with an annoyed expression, before getting interrupted.

"Urf…"

A loud grumbling voice brought them back to the main topic. They turned towards the Beagle Boys' Leader who was still trying to recover his breath on the floor.

"Anyway… need to ask him where your gold is…" Ace mumbled, walking away with an embarrassed expression.

Luffy didn't add anything and just followed.

"Humph… Ya won't get away wi'h it!" the Beagle Boys' Leader groaned at seeing the two pirates approaching, "Ya gonna hav' trouble with ou' boss! And I wanna not mess 'p with a Yonkou, if I w're ya…"

"A Yonkou…?" Ace reacted, and he pulled the defeated robber up to pin his eyes in his, "What do you mean?"

"Urph'…" the leader got the breath knocked out of him by the speed of reaction, "Hff, hff… Ya wanna know now? B't it's too late! Ya've come too far! Ya'll regret in H'll to have angered the m'st dangerous Yonkou!"

Ace's grip grew more acute, his fist pulsating with frustration.

Luffy had come closer too, his face way more serious than usual.

"We work f'r the man who caus'd a Big War j'st to get one of his men back…" the Beagle Boy was still explaining, between two gasps, his breathing difficult after having been beaten down to the pulp, "It's too late for ya…"

Ace's grip was now trembling with contained fury, the very bad feeling he had had ever since the robbery taking slowly shape in his chest.

"You don't mean…" Ace muttered, his voice barely audible and his eyes having fallen under the shadow of his hair.

"Yeah…" the Beagle Boy sneered with a bad omen superior tone, "Ya're gonna have to face the Emperor… WhiteBeard!"

SHIN.

A long heavy silence welcomed the declaration, the Beagle Boy leader inwardly rejoicing of the impact of what he had just said, when suddenly:

"No way, no way…" Luffy dismissed with a funny-ish pouting expression and a gesture of the hand dusting away the remark.

CRASH. The Beagle Boy confidence half collapsed and his eyes were bulging a little out of their sockets in exasperation at the sight of Luffy's reaction.

"Don't mess with 's!" he roared, the guttural indignation deadening in his throat due to the heavy blows which had hurt his lungs, "Told ya! H'll is gonna break down 'n the ones attacking h's allies! Donna m'tter if we're just hired, he'll…"

BAM. The fatty ass of the Beagle Boy leader expectantly met with the hard rocky surface of the ground, Ace's grip having released his collar and let gravity resume its rights on him.

"Ya…!" began the Beagle Boy with aggravated tone, before stopping to speak mid-way, words having frozen between his lips at the sight.

Ace was looking down on him, his cold obsidian eyes pinned on him as if they were razor blades cutting through everything on their way, and the air around him had just turned heavy and frosty, as if a prelude to some imminent Ragnarock.

"…" the Beagle Boy started trembling, cold sweats running down his spin and the rest of his declaration having been completely and forever forgotten.

Ace's fingers faintly repositioned, in preparation of the next move.

The Beagle Boy leader swallowed back with difficulty, not even realizing foam was starting to appear at his lips under the pressure of the aura of the pirate in front of him.

BAM.

In the blink of a moment, Ace had grabbed the two sides of his own camel shirt, breaking all buttons in a flawless move, before bringing the fabric down his shoulders and arms in a fleeting impulse.

By the time the shirt was falling to the ground, he had turned around, showing off his back to everyone's sight.

The acute white eyes enchased in purple of a tattooed Jolly Roger stared down at the Beagle Boy.

"WhiteBeard…" Ace started to speak, his face slightly turned to profile towards the beaten down leader, his tone as heavy and intimidating as Luffy as ever heard his brother sound like, "… hired you… you said…?"

The Beagle Boy was on the verge of fainting, his bulging eyes unable to leave out of his sight the daunting mark on Ace's muscled back.

"Care to revise your declaration…?" Ace asked in a rhetoric tone, a threatening light glowing in his obsidian pupils.

"N…no… no… n… o… way…!" was gasping the Beagle Boy, too much in shock to stop trembling, "But he h'd to'd us…"

"He…?" Ace thundered, his eyes frowning more and more deeply, "Who is 'he'?"

"He… tr'pped… us…" the old thief was starting to lose it, anger and fear mixing up with the pain of the previous beat down and bringing him to the verge of consciousness, "Curse h'm!"

"Who is 'HE'?" Ace snapped, grabbing the robber by the collar again to shake him out of his senses, "Who?"

"H… he betray'd Kaidou… he… the…" the old Beagle Boy muttered as his voice was dying in his throat, "The… SHER'FF…!"


End file.
